“When she was seven, Buthaina began experiencing difficulties accepting her disease. She started at school, where she saw her friends eating biscuits and chocolates and drinking Coca Cola. She felt different when she saw that they could choose freely what to eat while she couldn’t,” says her mother.

In December 2014, MSF opened a non-communicable diseases (NCDs) project in Irbid governorate with two clinics, providing medical treatment for Syrian refugees and vulnerable Jordanians with a range of chronic diseases, including diabetes, hypertension, asthma, cardiovascular diseases and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The NCD project also provides health education and psychosocial support to help patients lead healthy lives.

At present, MSF has 3,374 patients enrolled in its NCDs project in Irbid; 2,113 (62.6%) of them are being treated for both types of diabetes. MSF teams have provided 58,181 consultations, including home visits, since the start of the NCDs project in December 2014.