Diabetes Association of the City of Novi Sad was founded in 1961 and is one of the oldest diabetes associations in Europe. This Association was the cradle of the Union of Diabetes Associations of Vojvodina founded in 1980, and further of all diabetes associations in the former Yugoslavia. The president of the Union is Radivoj Mracevic.
The Union aims to provide therapy support, improve the quality of life and alleviate unfavourable life circumstances of people living with diabetes and people with disabilities, who make a community of 400,000 people in AP Vojvodina, and also implements activities aimed at better prevention, education, early detection of diabetes and prevention of complications caused by diabetes.
The vision of the Association is to reduce the number of people affected by diabetes (especially among the young population) through prevention, education, early detection of diabetes and counselling and therapy, and also to prevent complications that lead to disability, through professional education.
The most significant result of the Union is that its members, in their local self-governments, provide counselling and therapeutic services and thus, by organizing interactive workshops, counselling, round tables, lectures and presentations, they have saved tens of thousands of people with diabetes from disability and lethal outcomes.
In its work, the Union receives the largest support from the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs – Department for the Protection of Persons with Disabilities. In respect of efforts to improve the position of people with diabetes in the Republic of Serbia, the Union’s vision is to establish educational centres, or counselling service in all member organisations, where counselling and therapeutic work, education, prevention and diabetes early detection activities would be carried out daily, with the assistance of local self-government, but also other state authorities.
