Recent economic development in Vietnam, which has a population of nearly 90 million people, has been accompanied by rising prevalence of type 2 diabetes. However, diabetes management in general is far from optimum, due largely to the lack of specific education available to people with the condition. There is only a small number of specialized educators, and diabetes education is generally provided by doctors who do not have the time or background to carry out this work adequately. Ta Van Binh and Le Quang Toan report on a project to improve the quality of diabetes education in Vietnam and in doing so, provide good quality diabetes education to large numbers of people with diabetes in their communities.