One of the issues that many of my Type 1 compatriots are often confronted with is the idea that "juvenile diabetes" is restricted to, well, juveniles. That once you turn 18 -- or 21, in some jurisdictions -- your diabetes automatically transmogrifies into Type 2 and you can be cured by exercising three hours a day, losing 10 pounds, and avoiding any food that isn't pure protein. And maybe, taking a cinnamon pill, a bitter melon pill, or whatever the herbal cure du jour might be.

As we all know, that popular myth has about as much truth to it as, umm, the belief that Princess Anastasia is still alive and well and living in the same body she had in 1917. Let me rephrase. The probability that Rasputin is alive and well and living in the same body he had in 1917.

Or that unassisted by aircraft, gliders, wings, cannons, or catapults, wild boars are capable of self-initiated, self-directed, soft-landing flight.

An unfortunate byproduct of this myth -- and others like it -- is that while much assistance is given to feeding, housing, educating, and caring for medically at-risk youth, the moment those teens "age out" of the system, they are left with no food, no shelter, no medical care, and -- in areas where jobs are scarce, and good jobs scarcer -- little if any way to acquire the medications and care they need. In the 1970s and 1980s, we saw this happen to developmentally- and emotionally-challenged young adults. While in the "developed world", most adults with diabetes are immune to this, it is still an issue in developing nations and poor populations.

Amongst the various levels of charity, the highest is that of rendering the recipient self-sufficient. It's that old, "Give me a fish/Teach me to fish" paradigm. On the one hand, when we teach children with diabetes how to test their blood glucose, calculate carbs, and draw up their insulin shots (or program their pumps), we are teaching them how to keep their blood glucose levels under control (whatever that might mean) for a lifetime; on the other hand, they still need to have the insulin and supplies given to them (or sold to them) to be able to use them. It is therefore essential that any global aid program that teaches children with diabetes to take care of themselves medically also prepares them for -- and if need be provides them with -- jobs that will give them the logistical means to do so.

To do anything less would be a waste of resources.