Lifeline for renal patients

KOCHI: It started as a commitment between four friends. Do something for the kidney patients. Thus Navajeevanam was born, a project that came to the help of several patients with chronic renal condition. Of the four friends, vicechairman of the Trust M A Afra is no more. He passed away last year. The others, K N Ananda Kumar, K V Paul and Sethuraman continue to carry on the mission.
Says Ananda Kumar, "It was Afra's dream. Now, five years on, we have offered free dialysis to 75,000 people."The project, under the Sri Sathya Sai Orphanage Trust, has been running eight dialysis centres in six districts, including one each in Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha and Kasaragod and three in Ernakulam. On July 16, the Trust is all set to inaugurate a centre in Kannur. Next on the line is in Palakkad District where Navajeevanam will start functioning at the government hospital. "When we started the project, we had no idea as to how long and how far we would reach. But God has been kind," said Kumar. Today, a dialysis costs anywhere between `1,2001,500. And the number of patients have been on the rise ever since. So far, `8 crore has been spent on the Navajeevanam project. As part of their fifth anniversary, a souvenir was brought out by the trust, in connection with the completion of five years of the project. The souvenir, which details the project, also contains health advisories by expert doctors for chronic renal patients on dialysis on how to manage their lifestyle. "We have had difficulties in running the project. Yet we have managed to take it this far thanks to the contributions of several philanthropists," says Kumar. Like the elderly gentleman who walks into the office of the Trust every month after collecting his pension of `150 and donates `50 for the Navajeevanam programme! May his tribe increase.