national kidney foundation singapore: The NKF is a charitable organisation that provides dialysis treatment and rehabilitative care to kidney failure patients at affordable, subsidised rates. Our philosophy is to care for our patients holistically, aiming to help patients maintain a reasonable quality of life. The NKF also provides health-screening and public education services to raise the community’s awareness on the importance of renal disease prevention.
DONORS RALLY TO CONTRIBUTE TO NKF CHARITY DINNER
Receiving strong support from various individuals and organisations, all 100 tables were sold one month before the NKF Charity Dinner, raising $818,658 (as of 14 Apr, 2011). This “no frills” event, held at the Orchid Country Club on 15 April, was graced by President S R Nathan and the First Lady.
This is by far the clearest indication that NKF’s continuous efforts to be cost-efficient in operations as well as be transparent and accountable to its donors and the public, has borne fruit. This is the first time that the new NKF had organised a major fundraising event.
Said NKF’s chief executive officer, Mrs Eunice Tay: “It is gratifying that there are so many ardent supporters of NKF’s mission to help needy kidney patients. Many donors and volunteers came forward to show their support after hearing about the event and we managed to achieve our target early. We are truly thankful that the public has faith and belief in the new NKF by showing their strong support through this event.”
Among the Foundation’s first contributors were the members of Taoist Federation (Singapore), consisting of Lorong Koo Chye Sheng Hong Temple and Loyang Tua Pek Kong as well as Singapore Buddhist Lodge who had purchased a total of 8 tables, each costing $15,000.
Mr Tan Thiam Lye, chairman of the Taoist Federation (Singapore) and chairman to the NKF Charity Dinner organising committee said: “I’m glad that NKF organised this dinner. This was a great opportunity for donors to show their support for kidney patients and let them know that they haven’t been forgotten.”
Singapore Buddhist Lodge chairman Mr Lee Bock Guan and advisor to the Charity Dinner organising committee said: “We tried to help where we could, regardless of religion. These kidney patients represent a very underprivileged portion of the community who really need our help.”
President Nathan himself showed his support by doing a Chinese calligraphy piece on stage during the charity dinner. He wrote the words ‘仁爱’, which means ‘Benevolence’, to symbolise the love, compassion, charity and humanity that donors, volunteers and supporters have shown to kidney patients over the years.
President Nathan, who had been practising writing the words, hopes that the calligraphy piece will be a symbol of hope for kidney patients as well as an encouragement to Singaporeans to continue contributing to the needy.
The calligraphy piece was auctioned together with the President’s personal brush set, which he has been using for calligraphy writing. This is the first time President Nathan had offered his personal brush set together with his calligraphy to be auctioned for charity.
Singapore Airlines, who sponsored the building of NKF’s first heartlands dialysis centre – the SIA-NKF Dialysis Centre in Toa Payoh – also chipped in with a pair of business class tickets to Sao Paulo for auction.
Besides donations, other organisations offered their services. The WuDang Sheng Hong Health Preservation Centre staged a Tai Chi performance, while Paya Lebar Methodist Girls’ School (Secondary) put up a collection of cultural performances.
The funds raised for the dinner will go towards helping needy kidney patients.
NKF heavily subsidises its kidney patients’ dialysis fees and medication. More than half of them are currently paying less than $50 monthly out of their own pockets for dialysis – compared to as much as $3,000 monthly in private dialysis clinics.
NKF needs around $53 million a year to support various highly subsidised programmes for kidney patients, while patient numbers and operating costs continue to rise every year as more and more patients join the NKF.
The ageing patient population is yet another pressing concern as older kidney patients tend to have medical complications or other chronic diseases such as heart problems. This results in the need for highly specialised care for these elderly patients, further contributing to the increasing costs.
“We hope that the public will continue to show more support for these kidney patients. They already have very little of everything. We are doing our best to provide them, not just with dialysis care, but also with the hope to carry on through our psycho-social support programmes.” says Mrs Tay.
For enquiries or to donate, please call 6299 0200 or email contact_us@nkfs.org or visit www.nkfs.org.
