Two months to go to World Diabetes Day!

1. Iconic monument to spread awareness in Rio
2. Tweet to race the Baja 1000
3. Huge push for World Diabetes Day in Brazil
4. What are you doing for World Diabetes Day?
5. World Diabetes Day logo available in 64 languages

1. Iconic monument to spread awareness in Rio

Made of reinforced concrete and soapstone, the 38-metre-tall statue of
Christ the Redeemer overlooks the city of Rio de Janeiro from the peak
of the Corcovado mountain. The statue has become an icon of Rio and
indeed of Brazil. The iconic statue has helped bring diabetes to light
during previous campaigns and now confirms its participation for the
third year. This is the 69th monument to confirm participation in this
year's campaign. Many more lightings are pending confirmation. Many
more are pending. As soon as your lighting is confirmed, please
register it at http://www.worlddiabetesday.org/en/add-activity.

If you want to light a building but don't know where to begin, read our lighting guide to get you started.

2. Twitter users: tweet to race the Baja 1000

World Diabetes Day champion Desert Dingo Racing – the official World
Diabetes Day car in the race across the Baja desert – has a special
offer for people using Twitter. Between now and the start of the race
on November 21, anyone who posts a tweet using the hash tags #WDD09 and
#desertdingo will have their message and name carried in the car during
the race.

"We'll be blogging live from the race and keeping
people informed through Twitter. We figured this would be a great way
to encourage people to use the #WDD09 hash tag when discussing what
they've got planned for World Diabetes Day on November 14," said race
team co-founder Jim Graham. The team conducts a drive-a-thon fundraiser
as part of the race with 100% of the donations going to support
diabetes education and awareness programs run by the International
Diabetes Federation.

For more information and to follow the team during the race, visit http://www.desertdingo.com.

Desert Dingo Racing will bring the car to the World Diabetes Congress
in Montreal, where it will be on public display near the entrance to
the Montreal Convention Centre for the duration of the Congress
(October 18-22).

3. Huge push for World Diabetes Day in Brazil

In the International diabetes Federation's South and Central American
Region (SACA), an estimated 6% of the adult population (16.2 million)
people are living with diabetes (2006 figures). The numbers are
expected to double within a generation if action is not taken. For this
reason, generating awareness of the diabetes threat is paramount.
Throughout SACA, World Diabetes Day provides an important opportunity
to make a difference. In Brazil, World Diabetes Day campaigning goes
from strength to strength. Among the activities for last year's
campaign, IDF member association FENAD (Federação Nacional de
Associações e Entidades de Diabetes) and ANAD (Associação Nacional de
Assistência ao Diabético) organized screenings that resulted in a
staggering one million blood glucose tests. The work of ANAD, FENAD and
IDF's other Brazilian member associations, Associação de Diabetes
Juvenil (ADJ) and Sociedade Brasileira de Diabetes (SBD), ensured that
Brazil was a leading country in the blue lighting campaign.

Once again, the diabetes associations in Brazil are working hard to
make an impact. A call has gone out to ANAD associates and staff to
light at least one place in blue and invite their family members and
neighbours to do the same. The organization expects 500 monuments and
half a million homes to be lit for World Diabetes Day 2009. The
campaign is being widely promoted through the media, city councils and
the House of Representatives of São Paulo, together with all the
diabetes associations across the country.

Let us know what's happening in your country so that we can profile your activities here.

4. What are you doing for World Diabetes Day?

Is your event for World Diabetes Day 2009 among the over 100 activities registered on the World Diabetes Day website?

Whatever you are planning, from individual acts, such as wearing the
blue circle symbol or lighting a candle, to public events involving
hundreds of people, we want to know what you're doing to raise
awareness of diabetes this November. There are a number of ways to
share your information with the community. You can register your event
on the World Diabetes Day site (http://www.worlddiabetesday.org/en/add-activity) or simply send an
e-mail to worlddiabetesday@idf.org with as much information as possible
about the event and we'll register it for you.

If you are
using Twitter, why not tweet what you're planning using the #wdd09 hash
tag? Whatever you do, please make sure that someone is there with a
digital camera to capture the event and share it with the global
diabetes community.

If you are attending the IDF World
Diabetes Congress in Montreal, please visit the IDF stand and let us
know your plans for World Diabetes Day and share any suggestions for
how we can improve future campaigns.

5. World Diabetes Day logo now available in 64 languages

Thanks to your recent help, we have been able to make the World Diabetes Day logo available in the following languages:

Bosnian, Dari, Gaelic, Georgian, Hindi, Kyrgyz, Lithuanian, Macedonian,
Norwegian, Pashto, Persian, Sinhala, Somali, Tamil, Tigrina, Ukrainian,
Yoruba and Zulu.

This means that we now have the logo
available in a total of 64 languages. Is your language included? Visit http://www.worlddiabetesday.org/en/materials/logo/logo-downloads and see for yourself. If your language isn't
there, simply translate the three lines below in exactly the same order
and send the translation to our worlddiabetesday@idf.org e-mail
address. We'll do the rest.

International Diabetes Federation
World Diabetes Day
November 14