In January 2009, a group of Brooklyn College students attended a workshop on Diabetes held at the CUNY Graduate Center by the CUNY Campaign Against Diabetes (CAD).

These three, highly motivated students came out of the five-day-intensive workshop with a vision: they wanted to use their leadership skills and the resources on campus to create an organization for the benefit the community in Brooklyn.

Diabetes has become a growing epidemic. It can be easily prevented, but people are not well informed about its causes, symptoms, and prevention. The purpose of The Diabetes Prevention and Awareness Coalition (D-PAC) is to spread knowledge about Diabetes and complications associated with the disease as well as find creative means to prevent it. We want to inform children and parents from the schools in the Brooklyn and students on Brooklyn College campus.

The events that we hold function to prevent diabetes through educating people about healthy physical and edible options, as well as encouraging them to fight against the root causes of this epidemic through active participation in the community.

Without a budget, during the Fall ’09 Semester, D-PAC did three major events and a food sale. The first event began at the end of the summer during Ramadan (Sept 1- Oct 18). We made brochures for diabetic Muslims in three different languages and delivered them to the Mosques throughout Brooklyn. With the help of the Health Programs office, we had them printed. The goal of the event was to inform the immigrant community on how to manage diabetes during their holy month, to encourage them to go see a doctor who can advise them on whether to fast or not, and to let them know that it is okay in Islam to not fast if one is sick.

Our second event was a movie screening, which, due to no budget, we held without renting a movie. Instead, we showed the documentary (Future of Food) that was free on Hulu. Despite the internet glitches, those that participated in the event had a stimulating discussion after it was over. This positive response has encouraged me to show more educational documentary screenings with discussion workshops.

Our third event was a Diabetes Training Workshop where we had a Certified Diabetes Educator come from SUNY Downstate (Maria Yomtov, RN, CDE).

They had a slow start, but gradually built a network of members who showed enthusiasm and a will to make the vision of the founding organizers a reality.

Today D-PAC integrates the brainstormed creativity of our "think tank" with the desire to educate and promote a healthy lifestyle in order to create events for our campus and community that will, in the long run, aim to help prevent diabetes.