15 Years of Keeping Hope Alive
 KDF has turned 15! KDF Link shares these 15 years with our patients, volunteers and supporters. Here’s what the volunteers behind KDF had to say...
“No life is too insignificant to be wasted away. Having witnessed many people losing their lives as a result of financial difficulties, KDF was formed to resolve the situation. In KDF’s 15 years of life-saving mission through subsidised dialysis treatment, we are glad to have ensured that the poor and needy are given the opportunity to receive dialysis treatment and not left to die. However, as important as is providing medical treatment, KDF cannot remain status quo, but evolve as situations are constantly changing. I hope that in the future to come, positive research findings in the prevention and cure of kidney and kidney-related diseases can be applied for the betterment of humanity.
On behalf of the KDF staff and patients, I would like to take this opportunity to express our special thanks to all who have kindly supported our cause, and in doing so have helped us to fulfill the mission we have set out for. Your support has brought hope to those who need it most.”
– Dr Gordon Ku, Chairman and Founder of Kidney Dialysis Foundation
“In the first 15 years, KDF has been able to give the poor and needy patients a second chance at life. They have been able to work, to see their children through school, be independent and begin their own families. They have become grandparents and are able to enjoy the times with their grandchildren. I trust that KDF will continue unwaveringly to serve its needy patients; to give them a second lease of life. KDF will continue to remain relevant, giving the poor needy patients a second chance at life.”
– Mr Yeo Thiam Teng, Director of Kidney Dialysis Foundation
“We have strongly believed since the early years of KDF’s establishment, that it is important to not only focus on our patients’ medical treatment but also on their well-being and other areas of renal care. By providing a holistic approach to patient care, taking care of the medical and physical needs of both the patients and their families, we are hopeful that patients will be able to lead more meaningful lives. I am pleased to witness the growth; physically, socially and emotionally in the patients and their families.”
– Assoc Prof Lina Choong, Chairperson and Medical Director of Medical Advisory Board, Kidney Dialysis Foundation
“Prevention through education is a key focus for KDF. This has been achieved through our annual Public Forum platform, numerous health brochures and regular workshops with patients; encouraging the audiences and instilling a greater ownership for their own health. Through these efforts in the past 15 years, we hope that we have created greater awareness in the community.”
– Dr Grace Lee, Medical Director of Medical Advisory Board, Kidney Dialysis Foundation
“In Singapore today, there is an increasing number of patients with kidney disease who require dialysis each year. Therefore, one of the important issues that we have to address is to be able to do research so that we can understand the causes of many of such kidney diseases, as well as to investigate new options for the treatment of these diseases. In this way, we can then decrease the number of patients requiring dialysis and transplantation. One of the important mandates for KDF is to not only provide high-quality subsidised kidney dialysis to patients, but also to fund research into many of these kidney diseases, so that we can then hopefully decrease the number of patients that may require end-stage renal failure care.”
– Prof Yap Hui Kim, Chairperson of Research Advisory Committee, Kidney Dialysis Foundation
Journeying into the 15th year of KDF’s mission, we envision ourselves to be a key partner in the community, serving the poor and staying true to our core values. As we enter this milestone in our history, we would like to thank all of you: partners, volunteers, supporters and donors for your kind support all these years, without which, our achievements thus far would not have been entirely possible. Happy Birthday, KDF!
KDF Flag Day 2011
By Adam Chen
 It all culminated on the 9th of April, 2011. Months and months of preparation and hard work have finally led to this day. 1921 volunteers, from 5 reporting centres and 2 schools, participated in an island-wide fundraising drive, all for KDF Flag Day 2011.
This year, KDF had set up reporting centres at the MRT stations of Jurong East, Ang Mo Kio, Outram Park, Newton and Pasir Ris. Reporting centres were also set up at Springfield Secondary School and Victoria School as each school had pledged to provide more than two hundred student volunteers. For the students of Springfield, their community involvement in KDF’s Flag Day was made more meaningful through a mutual reciprocal response; KDF had earlier gone to the school to educate the students on its mission and this included a presentation on “The Kidneys and Prevention of Kidney Diseases through Healthy Living”.
On the morning of the 9th of April 2011, students from various schools across the island turned up in droves, all eager and raring to do their bit for charity. They were all issued with the standard KDF donation bag, but not the usual stickers that were traditionally given to donors. This year, to commemorate KDF’s 15th anniversary, a 15th anniversary bookmark was specially commissioned for the donors of KDF Flag Day 2011.
Throughout the entire day, students braved the scorching heat, earnestly appealing to strangers and passers-by for donations. For many students, this was their first Flag Day experience, and many were heartened to be a part of this process, to raise much needed funds for KDF’s dialysis patients. Ang Tiong Han, a Raffles Institution student, said: “I have learnt that there are people with illnesses such as kidney diseases, who have to go through treatments like dialysis. Without these CIP activities to help raise funds, organisations would definitely be unable to support the costs of these treatments. Thus, I am glad that through this Flag Day, I am able to help people with kidney problems by funding their dialysis treatments.” Isaac Ng, also from Raffles Institution, agreed that dialysis patients need all the financial support they can get. “There are many people who have kidney problems, and they are often financially challenged as dialysis sessions cost a lot, and this is especially true for the lower-income families.”
In the end, KDF Flag Day 2011 raised a total sum of $78,144.50, of which $66,268.22 came from the street collection on the 9th of April 2011. Internal collection and outright donations amounted to $9405.28 and $2471 respectively. In recognition and appreciation for outstanding service and performance rendered towards KDF Flag Day 2011, KDF is pleased to award Springfield Secondary School with the Highest Volunteer Participation Award for providing 322 student volunteers on the 9th of April, Maha Bodhi School with the Gold Flag Donation Award for raising $874.20, the most amongst schools for internal collection, and the SIA Cabin Crew Club for Community Care with the Gold Flag Donation Award for raising $2459.90, the most amongst companies for internal collection.
Last but not least, KDF would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you, donors and volunteers alike, for helping to make this event the huge success that it was, because without you, it definitely would not have been entirely possible!
KDF Public Forum 2011 – Preventing Kidney Failure in Diabetes
Early intervention through education and health-screening will help build awareness for the general public to take care of their kidney health. Thus in conjunction with World Kidney Day this year, KDF has organised a Public Forum entitled “Preventing Kidney Failure in Diabetes” to highlight the importance of the connection between kidney diseases and diabetes and to draw attention to the threat present.
On 19 March 2011, close to a thousand people turned up for this complimentary forum held at the Suntec Convention Centre. In support of the forum, several companies had set up exhibition booths and conducted various health screenings and basic consultations to demonstrate the importance of monitoring one’s health condition.
The Health Promotion Board promoted their campaign on healthy Body Mass Index and did a BMI screening for forum attendees using their two BMI machines. Random cholesterol, blood glucose and blood pressure checks were available, courtesy of Steward Cross, Abbott and the Diabetic Society of Singapore, respectively. With the participation of Terumo, attendees also had the opportunity to have their vital body measurements taken, charted and advised on. The audience were each given a goodie bag which contained health brochures, Special K Cereal, Vicks lozenges, a Pokka can drink and NeWater, all of which were donated by sponsors.
The Public Forum also saw the exclusive launch of Dim Sum Stories, a collection of 15 short stories chronicling the struggles and achievements of dialysis patients and their caregivers. Dr Grace Lee, one of Dim Sum Stories’ co-editors, was on hand to promote the book and even took time out to personally autograph copies of the book for a lucky few.
During the second half of the forum, specialists and a dietitian built awareness for the topics that they covered. Some of the topics addressed were the relationship between diabetes and kidney failure, the meaning of a “diabetic diet’”, and explanations on the mechanisms and effects of diabetic medications. A question-and-answer session also allowed the audience the opportunity to have their queries answered by the health professionals present.
The forum ended on a high note with KDF’s 15th Anniversary Lucky Draw and 10 lucky winners walked away with attractive prizes sponsored by Steward Cross, Abbott, Terumo and KDF.
The organising committee of the KDF Public Forum 2011 would like to thank our sponsors: Lee Foundation, Asiapharm Biotech Pte Ltd, Baxter, Gambro, Tan Ean Kiam Foundation, Sime Darby and all our working partners for their contributions and kind support towards our annual forum.
We welcome your participation in our future educational events, and hope that our public education effort is encouraging the public to take preventive measures to curb the rise of kidney diseases in our community. It is important to understand that early detection and prevention could reduce your chances of becoming a victim to chronic kidney diseases.
Racing for the Kidney Patients...... Go...Go...Go...... !!!
 The climax for months and months of careful planning, logistics preparations, toil and perspiration finally came to the perfect finale on the 27th March 2010 at Nee Soon South Community Club.
The Amazing Kidney Race which was jointly organized by KDF and Nee Soon South Youth Executive Committee was first planned as part of KDF’s World Kidney Day celebrations with the objective of raising money to subsidize the cost of the dialysis treatments and medication for our kidney failure patients. A secondary aim was to educate participants on kidney health and diseases, and at the same time, teach simple ways for participants to take charge of their own health.
After days of wet weather leading up to the event day, even Mister Sunshine came out to shine his beams to over 50 participating teams that Saturday morning at Nee Soon South Community Club. Participating teams consisted of students and working adults alike competing in two separate categories; Student Category and Open Category; in a bid to be the inaugural champions of the very first Amazing Kidney Race held in Singapore.
With the Race flagged off by the Guest-of-Honour Er. Lee Bee Wah, MP for Ang Mo Kio GRC and Adviser to Nee Soon South Grassroots Organization and accompanied by KDF CEO, Mrs Foo Pek Hong, the Kidney Race enthusiasts were sent on their way to complete a 10 station obstacle course located all around Nee Soon Constituency.
In order to heighten the enjoyment and excitement factor in the Race, participants were given clues leading to their next stations and they had to solve quizzes within these clues to be allowed to play the games in their following station. Some of the games included a station where they had to play charades to guess several idioms as well as a game to challenge their nimbly chopstick skills by picking up green beans submerged in red kidney beans signifying the filtering process of the kidneys at another game station.
The event ended on a high note with a prize giving presentation and the champion teams of each competing category received $500 worth of vouchers. A special prize was also given to the highest pledge card collector for the event. The most apt way to end a fruitful educational Race for all our participants!
The Amazing Kidney Race went on smoothly without a hitch, thanks to all our participants, sponsors and vendors that were a part of this event. A big thank you to all our goodie bag sponsors; Kelloggs for your Special K cereal and VICKS VapoRub cream, 133 Trading for your disposable ponchos, Gardenia Foods (S) Pte Ltd for the delicious Gardenia cream rolls, NESTLE MILO for the cups of refreshing MILO drinks that were provided to our participants, Regent Media for the Football Weekly magazines as well as SPH Magazines Pte Ltd for the HER WORLD magazines, SHAPE magazine, and SEVENTEEN magazine.
KDF would also like to thank our partner, Nee Soon South Youth Executive Committee for being that pillar that we depended on throughout this journey of the Race as well as Nee Soon South Community Club for providing us the venue and game locations for this Race. Our gratitude also goes out to our cash sponsors that came on board for this Amazing Kidney Race; Far East Organization, Singapore Totalisator Board, Lee Foundation, Hong Leong Foundation, Cathay Photo Store and NTUC FairPrice Foundation Ltd.
Amazing Kidney Race had managed to raise not only over $140,000 for our beneficiaries; it had also created much needed awareness and understanding of kidney health and kidney diseases. A feat that was impossible without the support and assistance from all the parties involved!
Main Sponsors
Goodie Bag Sponsors
The Island-wide Movement to Pay It Forward with KDF
 AMK Hub, Compass Point, Jurong Point, Lot One and Plaza Singapura were bustling with activity on Saturday, 15 May 2010, as 750 volunteers turned up at the five shopping malls with one mission in mind – to Pay It Forward with KDF.
The volunteers arrived bright and early at 7:30am and were eager to begin their street collection after picking up their donation bags and packets of exclusive KDF origami cranes and KDF stickers. A total of 18,000 origami cranes were folded by fellow volunteers of the Pay It Forward Movement in a span of 3 months and were given out as tokens of appreciation to the donors.
The Pay It Forward Day is not your average Flag Day. It is actually part of the Pay It Forward Movement – a chain of events which demonstrates how a simple act either it being from a small donation or a kind action (in this case, the folding of origami cranes), if replicated over and over, can make a huge impact in saving the lives of our needy patients. Every person involved, whether they were folding origami cranes to be distributed, the street collectors who committed their time and effort to do the often arduous task of asking for donations from passer-bys and strangers, or the ad-hoc volunteers who decided to sign-up for the event on the spot, played a vital part in the Pay It Forward Movement.
Some volunteers truly exemplified the vigour and spirit of love and charity as they made several return trips to their collecting stations to ask for refills of the cranes and stickers for distribution. Others also combed the island and operated in areas far away from their originating stations. Many schools and families acted together in the spirit of charity, while some organizations fostered corporate social responsibility in their employees by participating in the event together.
Gregory Cheng, one of the Volunteer Planning Coordinators for KDF Pay It Forward Day, felt heartened to see the immense amount of time, effort and sheer will put into the event by everyone. “This really allowed me to experience personally the feeling and nature of kindness and charity. It is my hope that events like this will allow more of us to continue to exemplify these virtues and show that we are all capable of that little sacrifice and that we all have our generous side,” he says.
KDF would like to thank the public and all participating schools and organizations for their generosity and support when it comes to lending a helping hand to the needy. With everyone’s effort, the Pay It Forward Movement managed to raise a total of $31,064.84 for our kidney patients.
KDF Donation Box
 Do you have loose change after purchase of meals or groceries? Feed them into our hungry donation boxes! There’s no donation that is too little. Every penny that goes into the donation box would mean more subsidies for the dialysis treatment costs for the poor and needy kidney patients under our care. Now you can also donate foreign coins and notes into our donation boxes, after the integration of Project World Friends into our Donation Box project.
If you are interested to adopt a donation box and place it within your premises, please contact Ms Zahara Ibrahim at 6559 2652 or email zahara@kdf.org.sg.
With strong support from our kind partners who have adopted our donation boxes, we now have donation boxes island-wide at locations such as the Novotel Singapore, PSC, Killiney-Kopitiam, Kopitiam and S11 outlets. Click here for a list of locations of our donation boxes. Please donate when you spot one!
Project World Friends
Charity knows no boundaries! Kindness and love transcend geographical boundaries, races, languages and cultures. We are able to appreciate this more in our very own multi-racial community in Singapore. So let’s spread our love without boundaries, through KDF’s Project World Friends!
Project World Friends is designed to receive donation from both local and foreign currencies. If you have unused foreign currencies from your recent holiday, donate them for a good cause! We accept currencies from just about any country in the world.
To help in this project, you can donate the foreign currencies to us by posting them or drop them personally at our main office. Alternatively, you can also look for our donation boxes around Singapore and feed into them. Locate our donation boxes here.
If you intend to do a group collection internally within your organization or school, we would be glad to arrange donation boxes to be sent to you.
Ms Zahara Ibrahim at 6559 2652 or email zahara@kdf.org.sg for more information.
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