Papua New Guinea's Seventh-Day Adventist Church is trying to combat the growing rate of type 2 diabetes and other lifestyle diseases in the country.
A PNG Department of Health report shows the country has one of the highest rates of diabetes in the world, and Adventist health director Gad Koito said the project aims to reduce this rate and the prevalence of non-communicable diseases.
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Called 'Save 10,000 Toes', Mr Koito said it will include three key strategies, which are - providing kits for diabetic detection, training medical professionals and educating people about healthy lifestyles.
"The trend that we are seeing now is that we are moving towards more non-communicable diseases or lifestyle disease. We are sick and they are also killing us so this is the reasons why we decided to address this," said Gad Koito.
Mr Koito said the church will initially roll out the programme through PNG's Adventist Churches, but hopes other churches get on board.
He also said there were plans to discuss extending the project to other South Pacific countries.
