The introduction of the World Diabetes Day (WDD) 2007 Geocoin, forms an exciting part of this year's campaign, helping to spread the news about World Diabetes Day and drive people to local diabetes events.

In 2006 the Unite for Diabetes geocaching campaign was launched at the World Diabetes Congress in Cape Town to help raise awareness of the United Nations Resolution for diabetes. This geocaching activity was incredibly well received throughout the world, generating awareness of the Unite for Diabetes messages among over 700,000 geocachers, through the availability of the Unite for Diabetes Travel Bug.

To keep the attention of the strong geocaching community and to drive attendance at WDD events throughout the world, 5000 WDD ‘Geocoins' are to be made available at local events held for WDD. The Geocoins are similar to the Unite for Diabetes Travel Bug and will commemorate the passage of UN Resolution 61/225 and mark the first United Nations World Diabetes Day.

What is Geocaching?

Geocaching is an entertaining adventure game for GPS (Global Positioning Systems) users, which is taking hold worldwide and currently has an active following of over 700,000 individuals. Members of the geocaching community collect highly prized items including Travel Bugs and Geocoins. These items are trackable according to a code found on each, and typically get moved between geocachers throughout the world, either directly, or by being discovered in one ‘cache,' or hiding place, and moved to another.

There are two key benefits of this WDD Geocoin campaign; the first is that WDD messages will be spread globally amongst geocachers as well as their friends and family and the second is that geocachers will need to attend a WDD event to obtain one of the prized Geocoins, therefore driving attendance.

How to get involved

Shortly, the first 1,500 Geocoins will be made available to the first geocachers to register on http://unite.geocaching.com (this website is currently being updated). The remaining 3,500 Geocoins will be made available at WDD events around the world. Contact communications@idf.org to find out more.