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Among the numerous projects that have been initiated so far, Kindred Kidneys has the honor of being an outstanding project the club has been working on for a few years. Kindred Kidneys which is a massive cause in the community service arena, has many phases throughout the project that allow us to work and extend more on our work aimed at supporting the kidney patients being our main targeted community to start this cause. Let’s learn more on the project we have been working on so far.
Among their phases, Kindred Kidneys (KK) donation phase was targeted at facilitating the essential needs of Chronic Kidney Disease(CKD) patients. This included financial support rendered to Sri Lanka Kidney Patients’ Association (SLKPA) to get medicinal drugs and conduct medical tests for Kidney patients. The project was conducted upon a request by SLKPA to support the medication of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) and support Dialysis treatment of Kidney patients during these economically unstable situations in the country.
As per the information given by Sri Lanka Kidney Patients’ Association (SLKPA) weekly cost for dialysis which is born up through the Hemodialysis project which supports the dialysis treatments of CKD patients amounts to LKR 82,376.00 per 20 patients and the annual cost was estimated to be LKR 3 954,048.00. These costs were essentially covered by SLKPA through the fundraising campaigns conducted by the organization. However, with the COVID -19 pandemic breakdown and the existing economic concerns the funding for these treatments and patients’ supportive activities faced challenges such as repercussions of fewer stocks in medical drugs and increased prices of drugs leading to an increase in the deaths of CKD patients with the hardships that these families have faced. Thus, as per the requirements gathered by the SLKPA the Kindred Kidneys Donation Phase was conducted to provide funds for these requirements. Thus fundraising activities were planned via an effective public awareness campaign conducted via official social media pages including Facebook and Instagram and via Go Fund Me fundraisers which were initiated by members of Rotaract Club of Alumni of University of Moratuwa. The total contribution to the funds of SLKPA from the Kindred Kidneys Donation Phase was 233,732.00 which marks a successful milestone in the project.
While Kindred Kidneys have been recognized as a signature community service initiative by the club for many years, the year 2022-2023 marks the fourth consecutive year of the project conducted with numerous sub projects that were expanded to an even wider scope than the previous phases of the project. The project consist of many sub projects namely;
1. Kindred Kidneys Scholarship Program (‘Kindred Kidneys Shishyadara’)
2. Kindred Kidneys “Wakugaduwa” news paper
3. Suwa – Sawi Donation Phase
4. Kindred Kidneys Donation of Portable Reverse Osmosis (RO) Plant
1. Kindred Kidneys Scholarship Program (Kindred Kidneys Shishyadara)
Kindred Kidneys Scholarship Program which is conducted for the third consecutive time from its initiation in the year 2022-23 is a scholarship program which is aimed at supporting the education of the students who come from families affected by Chronic Kidney Disease. The Kindred Kidneys scholarship program was established in order to provide a more sustainable solution for the financial issues faced by the families affected by Chronic Kidney Disease. The cost of diagnosis of CKD which has to be beared up by the families with such patients is often unabsorbable by families and any support which is extended toward these affected families would be highly valuable in order to overcome the effects of CKD which are not directly influenced in curing the disease but for the better survival of the patients and their family members especially children.
The criteria for the selection of scholarship awardees were selected from families that had members affected by CKD or deceased by CKD and faced financial instability for continuing their education.
2. Kindred Kidneys “Wakugaduwa” news paper
This is a newspaper selling program conducted by the Rotaract Club of Alumni of the University of Moratuwa together with SLKPA in making the community aware on CKD and related factors.
3. Suwa – Sawi Donation Phase
Kindred Kidney’s donation phase was targeted at facilitating the essential needs of CKD patients. This included financial support rendered to Sri Lanka Kidney Patients’ Association (SLKPA) to get medicinal drugs and conduct medical tests for Kidney patients. The project was conducted upon a request by SLKPA to support the medication of CKD and support Dialysis treatment of Kidney patients during these economically unstable situations in the country.
4. Kindred Kidneys Donation of Portable RO Plant
Donating a portable RO plant is happening this year as well in an organized manner that will be of greatest importance to the community.
When it comes to the objectives of the project have main objectives. Among them are Supporting patients diagnosed with CKD and assisting their families to have a stable lifestyle, Supporting the organizations that are involved in the eradication of CKD and providing sustainable mechanisms for supporting education of students whose families are affected due to CKD. Accordingly, the goals we aimed at working on namely, good health and well-being, increasing health financing and supporting the health workforce in developing countries, and achieving universal health coverage and Rotary Areas of Focus including Disease Prevention and Treatment and Other focus Areas have been considered while working on this project.
Hence, we have been able to see our objectives being successful and the benefits of working on such a cause.
As a fruitful result for the efforts we have put towards making the community better, the club received many awards including the Award for the Most Outstanding Initiative in line with the Rotary Focus Area Disease Prevention and Treatment for Kindred Kidneys.
In my opinion, the aim of the Kindred Kidneys project this year is to give our maximum contribution and support to our selected area. There is a small innocent hope in the bottom of our hearts, to give a little smile and hope to the kidney-diseased people in that area. Not only that, we hope to give a long-term solution to that area, when giving a RO plant. And also we wish to help some students in that area with their academics when giving scholarships.
We strongly believe that we can achieve our target successfully and to help them in every way possible to support them towards leading a healthy and a better life. We also invite our dear readers to join us and help us find funds for this good cause to help make the community better.
Written by
Rtr. Dinithi Fernando
