11 Mar 2015

The Ministry of Education and Skills Development has signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with Moabi Trust Fund to partner in raising awareness about the kidney diseases and other chronic illnesses.

Speaking at a press conference in Gaborone recently, the ministry’s deputy permanent secretary (Corporate Services) Ms Nonosang Mhutsiwa commended Maikano Junior Secondary School for establishing Moabi Trust Fund.

This fund, Ms Mhutsiwa said was a noble initiative that would go a long way in ensuring that there was a healthy workforce, which “is a critical ingredient in enabling us to effectively deliver on our mandate.”

“As a ministry, in our endeavour to fulfil our key Vision 2016 pillar of producing an educated and informed nation, we take it that it cannot be done in isolation, but have to support Moabi Trust Fund as it focuses on upholding another pillar of contributing towards a compassionate, just and caring nation,” she added.

For her part, Maikano JSS deputy headmaster, Ms Thateng Majwabe said Moabi Trust Fund is a national organ disease organisation aimed at promoting organ disease prevention and treatment of individuals and families. The fund, she said was established to raise funds to assist a teacher at Maikano, Mr Pedro Moabi, who was diagnosed of kidney failure in September 2012.

However, Ms Majwabe said the fund did not only assist Mr Moabi, but extended help to educationists, officers, teachers, students and the general public suffering from the kidney diseases and other chronic illness.

So far, the fund is currently sitting with a number of cases in need of urgent financial assistance for treatment of kidney diseases.

Describing the gruesome disease of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), Mr Moabi- a recovering patient and founder of Moabi Trust Fund said “CKD takes more than 10 years for the kidney to stop functioning. It is like a tree that withers away in a rough winter day, leaf by leaf, and sometimes branch by branch leaving your kidneys blunt like a dead piece of wood that used to be an evergreen tree.”

This disease, he said was also one of the deadliest chronic diseases the world over, also known as chronic renal disease with a progressive loss in renal function over a period of months or years. 

The symptoms of worsening kidney function  might include feeling generally unwell. ENDS