The first question

While I mean in no way to diminish the seriousness of the problem of poverty, I saw – in this story – many parallels to how we work with people and kids who have diabetes. We diabetes professionals can start by using “compassion, not punishment” and asking simple questions such as “how are you?” and “what do you want to talk about today?” rather than imposing our own agenda. Even the general public can use these principles in how they think about and interact with those who live with diabetes. It is so important that we never assume we know what someone’s experience is. And even more important that we don’t judge based on our assumptions. All we have to do is ask.