ABU DHABI // A FNC member raised more than Dh250,000 in less than a month to purchase a dialysis machine after a colleague died from kidney failure.
Azza bin Suleiman collected Dh255,600 through a Ramadan social media campaign that she started with her fellow FNC members.
A year ago, her colleague at the Ministry of Infrastructure Development, Ahmad Hassan, died from the disease.
After seeing the suffering he went through, Ms Suleiman was eager to provide help for patients to ease their suffering and financial burdens.
“He had to go for dialysis three times a week and did not even take time off to do it,” said the member for Dubai.
“Dialysis is very exhausting health-wise, psychologically and financially because it is a never-ending process.”
Each dialysis treatment costs about Dh500.
“How much income does a patient have to have to pay this amount several times a week?”
Ms Suleiman contacted the Al Ihsan Charity Association, which runs the charitable Al Ihsan Medical Complex, that provides dialysis for patients in need or with limited income.
Dr Haki Ibraheem, the executive director of the complex, said there was a high incidence in the region of kidney failure, which was a long-term condition, “unless the person undergoes a transplant, which is very costly and not easy to find a donor”.
He said the alternative, which is dialysis, “in a best-case scenario costs Dh8,500 a month”.
As well as the machines, the filters and solutions that are used during each dialysis are very costly.
The complex currently has 15 patients on its waiting list, and the new machine that the campaign sponsorship will pay for will enable them to treat only one or two additional patients.
“When Ms Azza suggested the initiative, we told her we already had a project and we started working together,” Dr Ibraheem said. “She put a lot of effort and time into it.
“After we explained all the details she created a perfect marketing plan to cover the costs.”
He hoped that a permanent endowment fund could be established to ensure that patients have access to treatment in the long run.
Hassan’s widow, Farida Al Ali, said her husband had been constantly worried by the financial burden of his disease.
“The first thing he could think of was not how to get rid of the illness, but the financial cost of the treatment,” she said.
“From my experience with my late husband, [the treatment] was very stressful for him because financially it was a large amount,” she said.
“But when someone helped him [with the costs] the treatment would prove more effective because he was emotionally at rest.”
On June 10, Ms Suleiman kicked off the campaign with the help of fellow FNC member Saeed Al Remeithi, who has a large following on social media.
While the campaign was launched during Ramadan, Ms Suleiman said it would continue throughout the year.
“It started and it will not end. I contacted many foundations to organise events after Ramadan and continue to collect donations,” she said.
Through text messages worth Dh50 that could be sent through SMS to 6226, or via the charity mobile app Khayr, the campaign managed to collect Dh194,200.
One generous donor gave Dh61,400 to help the campaign to reach its minimum target, which was to cover the Dh250,000 cost of one dialysis machine.
People can also email info@alihsan.ae for more information.
hdajani@thenational.ae