From our humble beginnings when we were first registered in 1969, the National Kidney Foundation of Malaysia has striven to raise the standard of care given to kidney failure patients and others suffering from various kidney related diseases.

In 1993, we opened our first dialysis centre at Jalan Hang Lekiu, and since then, the NKF has expanded its role from being purely a provider of dialysis treatment, to becoming a one-stop centre for all matters involving the kidneys.

National development and economic wealth have raised our standard of living and changed our lifestyles. Dining out and eating excessively, coupled with a lack of exercise and the demands of most modern jobs have altered our diets from what they used to be 20 or 30 years ago.

Even fast food, with its high salt and fat content, has penetrated the rural towns and villages with the result that rural dwellers are now experiencing a rise in the incidence of diabetes and hypertension – once considered “rich man’s diseases”.

Unfortunately, these two diseases are not just a growing problem in Malaysia, but are among the most common contributors to end stage kidney failure. As per the 17th Report of The Malaysian Dialysis & Transplant Registry 2009, 58% of all new dialysis patients were diabetics and 8% were hypertensive.

To help overcome this, the NKF plays a major role in educating the public on the prevention and management of kidney diseases. This role is one of the most important functions of the NKF, because prevention is always better than cure.

As its name suggests, the Public Education Department was set up specifically to educate the public on the causes, prevention and management of kidney diseases. Currently, health talks, public forums, heath screening and counselling are conducted on a regular basis in various cities and towns throughout Malaysia.

We are also reaching the public through the mass media, including radio, television, newspapers and magazines, through which the NKF is fulfilling our social responsibility of giving out information on all aspects of prevention and management of kidney diseases.

As part of NKF’s commitment to be the leading National Resource Centre for the prevention and treatment of kidney diseases, it is in the process of setting up NKF Resource Centre where NKF members, staff, well wishers, patients and their families can utilize the facilities to learn more about the prevention and management of kidney diseases, exercise, socialize and seek counselling etc.

We are confident that the NKF Resource Centre, as part of a holistic care component, will help to ensure dialysis patients continued good health and well-being. We hope to make the NKF Resource Centre available for service by end 2010.

For further information on the Public Education Department, please click on Public Education.

Like any organisation, what more a charitable, not-for-profit one such as the NKF, fundraising is an important component.

All our patients come from the lower income group, and cannot afford dialysis treatment at private medical facilities, so the NKF subsidises the cost of their life-saving dialysis treatment.

What this means is that this year alone, the NKF needs to raise RM12 million to subsidise the dialysis treatment cost for 1389 patients (as at July 2010) who seek treatment at our 25 dialysis centres throughout the country. We cannot do it alone, and we need your help.

Thanks to money raised from corporations and the public through donations, grants and other forms of financial support, we are able to subsidise the treatment cost for our dialysis patients.

The result is that our patients only pay a nominal RM50 per session as compared to charges of between RM150 and RM250 at private medical facilities.

Besides providing affordable dialysis treatment for kidney patients, the NKF has designed and developed the syllabus for Malaysia’s only specialised training course for Dialysis Assistants, thereby raising the standard of care given to kidney patients.

Dialysis Assistants are the men and women care givers who help staff nurses in providing on-the-ground assistance to kidney failure patients undergoing dialysis. They are seconded for training by their employers, who are, besides others, private hospitals and clinics and non-governmental and charitable organisations that run dialysis centres.

Currently, the NKF trains and certifies Dialysis Assistants from throughout the country, who, upon completing their three-month course, receives a Certificate of Competency as Dialysis Assistants.

For more information on the course and to fill out an application form, please go to Training.

Many patients experience trauma, shock and disillusionment when they are first told that they have end-stage kidney failure, and that they need dialysis treatment or a kidney transplant to continue living.

These patients view the future as bleak and uncertain, and one which demands lifelong expenditure for medical and dialysis treatment.

But thanks to the NKF’s Welfare Department, help is just a telephone call away. Our welfare officers are on hand to counsel and help patients overcome their initial depression, and put them on track to full psychological recovery.

And that’s not all. Many kidney failure patients are unemployed and unable to hold regular jobs because, unless they undergo a successful kidney transplant, they need dialysis treatments 13 times a month at four hours per session, which may interfere with their normal working lives.

Hence, the Welfare Department has also instituted various job placement and financial assistance schemes to help these patients earn a living through self-employment.

For more information on the services provided by the Welfare Department, please click on Welfare.