The Grassroots Kidney Awareness (GRAKA)
is
a project that develops grassroots kidney awareness
programmes for the African communities in Norfolk. The
project involves targeting
the people at local level as well as county level.
Local events would include distributing information to
people, organising get together and workshops on
kidney diseases. County events are part of the
national and regional events such as World Kidney Day
which promotes that kidney disease is common,
preventable and treatable and encourage people
screening and organ donation to save life.
This project is needed to develop preventive measures
and early detection of kidney disease in African
communities because Black people are four times
more likely to develop kidney failure than the general
population because of high prevalence of high blood
pressure and diabetes, the main causes of kidney
failure. Kidney failure can be prevented through
healthy lifestyle or good management of high blood
pressure and diabetes. African population in Norwich
is growing due to dispersal of refugees and migration.
According to Norfolk Observatory, 80% of population
change in Norwich is due to international migration of
which African communities have their share. This calls
for better planning in health and social care
especially prevention of certain illnesses such as
kidney failure through screening and early detection.
This will save the NHS money as more and more people
are prevented from being added on dialysis and
transplant waiting list.
We are
looking for volunteers to help us.
For
more information about this project, or to get
involved please
contact us
