Sacrifice for the mother land
CKD or chronic kidney disease is a growing burden globally affecting around 10% of any population. This disease brings about severe socio economic repercussions for the affected family.
If the patient is the bread winner of the family this makes the lives of the entire family hard as not only the income of the family is reduced due to illness but also the expenses are increased as there are additional expenses for medication and transport since follow up is needed at clinics. Medicine is free in Sri Lanka but there are limited availability.
This increases the stress of the familyas parents wouldn’t be able to provide enough attention to their children and provide for their children’s education. The affected family would have a different life style due to lower income and a sick family member.
The treatment options for CKD are Hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis and a more definitive and cost effective treatment is a kidney transplant.
Dialysis has limited availability in the country as a patient roughly needs 2 dialysis per week. Each dialysis costs about 8000Rs each this estimates around 832,000 Rs per year and hemodialysis is a stressful procedure which requires a site such as an AV fistula (small vascular surgery of the arm), perm cath or a neck line.
On the other hand kidney transplant surgery is a much more convenient option as the patient will have less complications and can live a normal life but the patient will have to be on immunosuppression life long. These drugs are very expensive as well and the government spends around one million per year per patient. Due to these issues CKD is a growing burden in Sri Lanka.
The sacrifices done by sri lankans abroad who care and provide for the motherland is miraculous. They have joined hands with the SLKPA (Samastha Lnaka Kidney patient Association) to raise funds to aid the kidney disease patients of Sri Lanka.
The dedicated members of SLK foundation UK organized “Dayada” Dinner Dance with Desmond De Silva and Mihindu Ariyaratne.
A fund raising event in British Midlands UK on 9th February 2019 in Nottingham.On 9thFebruary this year, Desmond De Silva was invited to entertain guests at the Fund Raising Event in Nottingham. He was joined on stage by popular young Sri Lankan singer Mihindu Ariyaratne and backed by EXCEED a Sri Lankan band in the UK. Veteran Actress Hon. MaliniFonseka graced the event as Guest of Honor.
The event was SOLD OUT as 570 guests danced the night away to the excellent entertainment provided by Desmond &Mihindu. A grand total of 12,401 GBP (Pounds Sterling) was raised that night.
SLK foundation UK is the biggest donor to the SLKPA and these donations have helped the victims of this disease in multiple ways. Total received from SLK foundation was 2,975,362.50Rs.
1,292,570.Rs from the funds were used for hemodialysis for end stage renal failure patients.
300,000.Rs was used for a Pilgrimage to Anuradhapura with more than 250 patients was done in order to boost patients spiritual development.
100,000.Rs was used to buy school books for schooling children of the affected family and social services.
283,230.Rs Was allocated for the next Dayada project.
Total expenditure = 1,975,800.Rs.
We are very grateful for the sacrifices made and the tremendous effort put by the SLK foundation towards the betterment of kidney disease patients of Sri Lanka.
 | By Dr.Sanjaya Heiyantuduwa – Consultant Nephrologist & adviser to Samastha Lanka Kidney Patients Association |
