Established 2010 (2010) Headquarters Rajkot, Gujarat, India | Founder Dr. Sanjay Pandya | |
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Fields Medicine, Healthcare, Education, Kidney Diseases, Nephrology Official languages English, Chinese, Spanish, French, Arabic, Hindi, Russian, Portuguese, German, Japanese and 16 other languages. International Liaison Officer Dr. Tushar Vachharajani | ||
The Kidney Education Foundation (KEF) is a health awareness organization dedicated to educating individuals and their families affected by kidney diseases. It provides free and easy access to information about prevention and care of kidney diseases through books and websites currently translated in 26 international languages.
Contents
The organization was founded by an Indian nephrologist, Dr. Sanjay Pandya, in 2010 to create awareness about kidney disease prevention measures primarily through free access to information to the general population. Driven by passion for this common cause, nephrologists across the globe have joined this mission, including many leaders of the international nephrology community such as Dr. Giuseppe Remuzzi, Past-President of the International Society of Nephrology, who prepared the Italian version and Dr. Guillermo García-García, President of the International Federation of Kidney Foundations, who prepared the Spanish version of the book and website. The free access to the website and the book enables widespread potential to share and download the information. The foundation runs solely as a charitable mission and has remained unbiased and clear of any commercial or external financial support.
The book and website offer comprehensive information about common kidney-related disorders, and their prevention and care on a single platform in many different languages.
History
In 2005, Dr. Sanjay Pandya began drafting a book to educate patients about the prevention and care of kidney diseases and common issues related to kidneys. His book, written in Gujarati is titled “Tamari Kidney Bachavo”, which translates to “Save Your Kidney”. The book was very well received by patients suffering from kidney disorders all over Gujarat [Citation Needed]. Attributing to its success in the state, the book was later translated into Hindi (2008) by Dr. Pandya to make it accessible to a wider audience across India.
In 2010, Dr. Pandya founded the Kidney Education Foundation to overcome the two biggest hurdles of inaccessibility and language barriers to reach the global population. He initially released the Hindi and Gujarati editions on the internet to achieve this noble goal with launch of website. In 2012, he wrote and released a free online English edition. The simplicity, usefulness and success of these early books and websites inspired several nephrologists all over the world to join the cause.
Various teams of international nephrologists began to translate the content in their native languages, making it available to their local vernacular (non-English speaking) audience. In a short span of 5 years, a dedicated team of more than 60 nephrologists at the Kidney Education Foundation has developed books and websites in 26 languages, including major international languages such as English, Italian, Chinese, Spanish, French, Arabic, Hindi, Russian, Portuguese and Japanese.
Organization – Team
The Kidney Education Foundation consists of passionate nephrologists from around the globe, working towards the common cause of educating uninformed kidney patients. The team efforts are driven by founder and chief mentor, Dr. Sanjay Pandya from Rajkot, India. He is a senior nephrologist with a keen interest in educating kidney patients. Dr. Pandya coordinates with several nephrologists from different parts of the world, who play a key role as individual language project leaders, thus ensuring smooth preparation and publication of the book and website.
Dr. Tushar Vachharajani serves as an international liaison officer who seeks world kidney experts with similar philanthropic interest aligned with Kidney Education Foundation's mission. He invites them to join this great initiative and encourages them to prepare a version of the kidney book and/or the website in their native language.
Other notable members of the team are Dr. Giuseppe Remuzzi, Past-President, International Society of Nephrology, Kidney Fund, Bergamo, Italy; Dr. Guillermo García-García, President, International Federation of Kidney Foundations, Guadalajara, Mexico; Dr. Takashi Yokoo, Chief Professor and Medical Director, Jikei University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan; Dr. Ho Chung Ping, Medical Director, Integrated Dialysis Facilities (HK) Ltd., Hong Kong, China; Dr. Edison Souza, Professor, Nephrology University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Dr. Abdou Niang, Secretary-General, Senegalese Society of Nephrology, Dakar, Sénégal; Dr. Valeriy Shilo, Associate Professor of the Department of Nephrology, FPDO MSMSU, Russia; Dr. Ashok Kirpalani and Dr. Dilip Pahari, Ex-President, Indian Society of Nephrology, India; and Dr. Sanjib Kumar Sharma, Nepal.
The book and website are currently available in 26 different languages (See table below.) And for the first time ever, the book is also made available for free on WhatsApp Messenger. On sending an SMS or a WhatsApp message to +919426933238 or by sending an email to [email protected], one can avail the book directly onto the phone.