About Kidney Dialysis
Foundation of Singapore
In the 1980s,
the then government-funded programme - Self-Dependency Dialysis
Unit (SDDU) provides subsidised dialysis treatment for lower income
patients in Singapore. To reduce costs, patients had to provide
a dialysis helper who was usually their immediate family members.
Patients and their helpers spent long hours seeking treatment,
disabling them from seeking full-time employment and therefore
leaving them trapped in the poverty cycle.
In 1996,
Dr Gordon Ku founded the Kidney Dialysis Foundation (KDF) in view
of this, with the support of the Ministry of Health, to make treatment
fees more affordable to these low-income patients. KDF revamped
the SDDU programme, provided trained dialysis helpers to patients,
enabling their family members to seek full-time employment. Kidney
Dialysis Foundation (KDF) was established with the commitment
to provide high quality, subsidised dialysis for the most needy
members of our community, the majority of thier patients are from
the bottom 10% income group of kidney patients in Singapore. KDF
is a non-profit charitable organisation and is not related to
any other kidney organisation in Singapore.
KDF’s
mission is to ensure that kidney patients do not suffer premature
death due to the lack of funds for dialysis. 90% of the patients
at KDF pay less than $600 per month as opposed to over $2,000
actual treatment cost of dialysis. KDF has treated over 350 patients,
of which 32 have received kidney transplant. About 250 patients
benefit from KDF and annually 3.5 million is needed finance their
operations to assist the patients.
Medical social workers from restructured hospitals refer patients
from the bottom 10% income group to the KDF. Most of these patients
hold jobs such as taxi drivers, hawker assistants, cleaners, and
store assistants.
One of the most important factor that differentiates the KDF from
other non-profit organisations is that thier commitment to serve
the poor and needy is shown by tangible action - thier Chairman,
Board of Directors and Executive Committee do not receive any
form of remuneration or honorarium from the foundation. KDF does
not have a Chief Executive Officer and they only have 20 staff.
The organisation depends on volunteers who step forward to render
their support in terms of finances and services.
For the financial year 2004/05, 84.1% of the funds received
by KDF was used in financial support in the form of dialysis
services and education. 15% were used in Fund-raising
related activities as well as administration, while only
1% was spent on publicity.
If you wish
to make a direct contribution to KDF, you may contact them through
their webiste at 
click here
to find out more about our charity
teambuilding game - änergy
rags
2 riches
related team building
articles:
team
building and team bonding
o.p.t.i.m.a.l.
approach to team building activities
multiple
intellengence and team building
why team
building activities always involve games
|