Kidney Foundation pleads for support

Malawi: Kidney Foundation, a Lilongwe-based organisation that cares for patients with kidney problems, has asked for help from well-wishers across the country to expand its operations.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Rotary Club of Bwaila-recent Lilongwe's K1 million donation to the foundation on Tuesday 28 June 2022, Frank Mwale, Chairperson of the foundation, stated that they currently lack food supplements aimed at improving the patients' body nutrients levels.

He said: “In most of the cases patients with kidney problems their food nutrients in the body are washed away frequently, therefore we need food supplements to bring back food nutrients in these patients and to find these food supplements that is one of the major challenges which we are facing at the moment.

“As a foundation, we are really struggling to source the needs for the patients, our message to the well-wishers is that they should visit us and look into what we are doing and feel the need to help us, their help will exactly go towards alleviating some of the challenges which we are facing.”

He also stated that they are looking for financial assistance to help them raise awareness about kidney disease so that the public can learn how to prevent the disease.

“Kidney disease is growing in the country because of lack of information among people, therefore we are also looking for financial support that would help us reach the public with the awareness message regarding kidney disease,” he said.

“We want the public to know what to do and not to do so that in that way we should prevent the escalation of the kidney disease in the country, in the same way, we are also advocating for the opening of a kidney hospital in the country where kidney transplant can be done.”

As a result, he thanked the Rotary Club of Bwaila-Lilongwe for its assistance to his organisation.

“I would like to applaud Bwaila rotary club for their work well done, they supported us with K1 million last year and this year they have also supported us with another K1 million,” he explained.

“We do not take this support for granted because we do not have a reliable source of funding as we rely much on contributions made by the members of our organization.”

Dr. Richard Dilawo, President of the Rotary Club of Bwaila-Lilongwe, stated in his remarks that they decided to help the Kidney Foundation after learning about its needs.

“We learnt that the foundation has a number of issues including; lack of food supplements as well as special plasters and that is life-threatening issues if they are not addressed, for this reason, we thought it wise to come up with support that would help to address some of the challenges which the foundation is facing,” Dilawo said.

According to the foundation's Chairperson, the Kidney Foundation looks after 65 dialysis patients at Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH) in Lilongwe on a daily basis.