History of the Word In Your Hand project

Community Arts and Poetry
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How did it start?

The Word in Your Hand™ project started with this post in our community, back in late July 2007. The idea was great, so we invited members of the community to contribute their photos.

What is the premise of the Word in Your Hand™ project?
 1) Write a word in your hand describing how you feel about diabetes.

2) Take a photo, showing the hand with the word.

3) Share it with others.

Between July and November 2007, we collected over 120 photos for the project through TuDiabetes® and through the TuDiabetes Flickr group.

What was the goal of the project?
We wanted to empower people touched by diabetes to express themselves and let the world know what it is like to have diabetes. The result of the project was this video including some of the 120+ photos submitted with music by one of the members too.

The video was posted on numerous channels in time for World Diabetes Day, Nov. 14, 2007, such as: YouTube, Current.TV and Vimeo

To date, the video has been picked up by nearly 25,000 blogs and other web sites.


The Global Diabetes Handprint initiative
In 2008, Diabetes Hands Foundation licensed Word In Your Hand to LifeScan, the makers of the OneTouch glucose meters. Inspired by Word In Your Hand™they created the Global Diabetes Handprint project. In 2010, the project was expanded and launched in Australia.
Photo update (May 11, 2011):
Marie B, one of the administrators of TuDiabetes and an amazing quilter, put together this quilt for Word In Your Hand, which captures the hands of many of the most active members in the community in the past few years. See the entire album of individual photos of each word.
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