Young leaders doing diabetes education in a school.

Background Although type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM) is one of the most common chronic diseases in children, school staff and students know very little about it. Most of what they know are misconceptions, like: “the person who has it cannot eat sugar”, or “it is a disease of old people”. Due to this lack of knowledge, they sometimes refuse to have students with DM, to assist them with their self-care routine, or are unable to help in an emergency. One of the Brazilian Young Leaders in Diabetes (YLD) made, as its conclusion YLD Training project, a diabetes information campaign in his former school.