Sana Ajmal (PhD, DDE)
Founder & Executive Director,
Meethi Zindagi
Sana Ajmal is a leader in global diabetes advocacy, a certified diabetes educator, and lives with type 1 diabetes. She founded Meethi Zindagi, Pakistan’s leading type 1 diabetes organisation, empowering youth and influencing policy, including a pilot programme by the Government of Punjab for free insulin for children. Sana collaborates with organisations like WHO, Breakthrough T1D, and The Lancet Diabetes Commission, and has won the Leonard Thompson Diabetes Advocacy Award in 2021. With a PhD in Engineering, she aims to improve life for children and youth with type 1 diabetes in Pakistan.
Recognised as a global diabetes advocacy leader. She founded Meethi Zindagi to improve the lives of individuals with type 1 diabetes in Pakistan and advocate for their challenges. She inspired children and individuals with diabetes to pursue their goals, gaining national and global attention for Meethi Zindagi.
Her advocacy prompted the Punjab government to launch a pilot project providing free insulin for children with type 1 diabetes in three districts. Her Meethi Zindagi’s Promise Insulin Programme was the main mover for this.
Sana works with various international organisations, including WHO, Breakthrough T1D, and the International Society of Paediatric and Adolescent Diabetes.
In 2021, she received the Leonard Thompson Diabetes Advocacy Award, marking the centenary of insulin’s discovery.
Sana holds a PhD in Engineering and is dedicated to diabetes advocacy. Meethi Zindagi is enhancing the lives of children and young people with diabetes in Pakistan.
From Muzaffarabad and Mianwali to Tharparkar, Skardu, and Pakistan’s major cities, thousands of children with type 1 diabetes face a daily routine of checking glucose, counting carbohydrates, and taking insulin. For many, the difference between a healthy life and a constant struggle is simply access. This is the mission of Meethi Zindagi.
Here is Sana Ajmal’s question & answer session with Flare.
Flare: Why is “Meethi Zindagi” a movement rather than just an organisation, and how is it helping people?
Sana Ajmal: Meethi Zindagi is one of Pakistan’s most trusted non-profits dedicated to type 1 diabetes care. It is a PCP-certified and Shariah-compliant organisation, approved as a tax-exempt charity by the FBR in Pakistan, and holds Candid’s Platinum Transparency Seal as a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit in the United States — credentials that reflect not just legitimacy, but a deep, ongoing commitment to accountability. But numbers on a certificate only tell part of the story. The real measure of Meethi Zindagi’s work lives in the towns, cities, and homes it has reached.
Flare: What inspired “Meethi Zindagi,” and how is it making healthy living accessible to all incomes?
Sana Ajmal: Type 1 diabetes does not discriminate by income, but survival with it often does. A child born into a household where insulin is an unaffordable monthly expense faces a very different future from one where it isn’t. Meethi Zindagi exists to close that gap — not through charity in the traditional sense, but through sustained, dignified support that lets children dream of becoming doctors, teachers, pilots, and engineers, rather than simply surviving to adulthood.
Flare: How has “Meethi Zindagi” evolved since its journey began in 2017?
Sana Ajmal: Founded on the belief that no child should be denied the chance at a full life because of type 1 diabetes, Meethi Zindagi has grown, since 2017, from a small community initiative into a nationwide support network. That growth has continued to gather pace this year — from the Ride for Insulin Heroes, a diabetes-awareness cycling campaign that rolled simultaneously through Lahore, Islamabad, and Karachi, to representing Pakistan on the global stage at the Parliamentary Diabetes Advocacy Forum in Malta. Closer to home, workplace sessions like the one held at Soorty Enterprises are quietly reshaping how corporate Pakistan understands and supports employees living with chronic conditions.
Flare: Where does “Meethi Zindagi” work, and how does it reach people in different parts of the country?
Sana Ajmal: Meethi Zindagi’s reach extends across more than 150 towns and cities in Pakistan — not just the country’s major urban centres, but some of its most remote and underserved regions, from the desert stretches of Tharparkar to the mountain communities of Skardu. Wherever a child with type 1 diabetes lives, Meethi Zindagi has worked to make sure geography is not the reason they go without care.
Flare: What are the five promises of “Meethi Zindagi,” and how do they support its mission?
Sana Ajmal: Meethi Zindagi’s work is built on five interconnected pillars. Access to Medication ensures insulin reaches children at their doorsteps through the Promise of Insulin programme, even in disasters and emergencies. Quality Healthcare is delivered through tele-education and a growing network of affiliated doctors and clinics. Empowering Education equips children and families to manage the condition with confidence, through resources like TIDBits and hands-on diabetes camps. Peer support and well-being is offered through community gatherings like Meethi Chah, where families meet over a cup of tea to simply not feel alone. And an enabling environment is built through awareness campaigns in educational institutes and corporate, alongside advocacy that pushes for systemic change.
Flare: What impact has “Meethi Zindagi” made, and what do the numbers tell us about its work?
Sana Ajmal: Today, Meethi Zindagi supports more than 1,200 underprivileged children and young adults living with type 1 diabetes. Behind every one of these numbers is a child like Mahreen in Islamabad, whose father drives a taxi through long hours to keep her insulin supply steady, or Sawab Bibi in Swabi, a ten-year-old who has spent her life quietly taking care of everyone around her, and now finally has people taking care of her in return.
Around this network of children and families has grown something equally powerful: a community of over 4,500 individuals — patients, caregivers, doctors, peer leaders, and volunteers — who show up for one another in ways that go far beyond medicine. It is this community that transforms a diagnosis from an isolating experience into a shared journey.
With over 1,200 children supported, a presence in 150-plus towns and cities, and a community more than 4,500 strong, Meethi Zindagi has quietly become one of the most far-reaching diabetes-support networks in Pakistan — built not on scale for its own sake, but on the conviction that every child deserves a sweet life, wherever they were born.
