July 2010 - Three Rivers Kids Foundation will be sending Rockel Gladstone, 20 years old, to India soon for a kidney transplant.

Rockel Gladstone, 20, requires dialysis treatment twice weekly in Georgetown because of her non-functioning kidneys but her family is struggling to cover the costs.

Her mother, Cheryl Gladstone, 41, of Kimbia, Berbice River, told Stabroek News that the dialysis costs $36,050 per session and she also has to pay $6,000 each time she and her daughter travel from Stanleytown, New Amsterdam, where they are staying with relatives.

Her savings are almost exhausted while her father, Frank Gladstone is not making enough money from their provision and peanut farm at Kimbia.

Rockel, the third of five siblings, returned home two weeks ago from Barbados, where she had gone since last September to be treated at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. The woman said her daughter was on a life support machine for six weeks at the hospital. “I felt I would have lost her,” she said.

According to Cheryl, “Now that she is doing better, I feel real good.” But she is aware that her daughter “cannot be on dialysis treatment all her life” and is “ready for her to have a kidney transplant.” The woman said she and her husband both willingly agreed to undergo tests to determine who would be an eligible donor.

It turned out that Rockel’s father would be the one who can donate his kidney. However, their limited finances are holding them back and Cheryl is pleading with the public for assistance so her daughter’s misery could soon be over.

Rockel attends church regularly and according to Cheryl, “She has a strong spirit; all she has on her mind is that she would get well.”

She said too that “from the time she got sick members of different churches and individuals prayed for her, and I wish to thank all of them. I want to tell them not to forget her now that she has recovered a little but to keep on praying for her.”

Three Rivers Kids Foundation will be sending another group of children to India for much needed surgery in February, 2011, and is appealing for your help. Please see some of their pictures below:

May 2010 - Three Rivers Kids Foundation is attempting to raise US $20,000 to help Satish Gobin.

Paraphrased from Kaieteur News Online:

The heart-wrenching story of nineteen year-old Satish Gobin who was recently diagnosed with chronic renal failure, epitomises the tragedy of living in a poor country in an age of technological wonder. Satish’s parents (his father is a canecutter) struggled to raise him and give him an education that he may enjoy a better life than they had. He had just secured employment with the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission when his potentially fatal disease was discovered.

Satish has been receiving dialysis treatments at a private operation in Georgetown that has been providing dialysis treatment at some US$175 per visit. To cover the recommended three weekly visits, then costs US$525 or $105,000 Guyanese dollars. One can only imagine the desperation of a canecutter as he watches his only child literally die before his eyes just because he does not have the funds to cover the dialysis costs.

But this is only a temporary solution. The ultimate treatment of replacing the diseased kidney presents the question even more starkly: kidney transplants cost approximately US$150,000 each in the US or US$35,000 in India. Where is a canecutter to secure even the latter amount of $7 million Guyanese dollars?

His mother is willing to donate one of her kidneys to save his life. Three Rivers Kids Foundation hopes to raise this money as soon as possible to send him and his parents to India for surgery. Please see our donation page for information on how to contribute.

[excerpt from the Guyana Chronicle. Original article can be found here.]

On Friday, April 16th, 2010, Three Rivers Kids Foundation officially opened its office in Guyana with free workplace space provided by the Gandhi Youth Organisation (GYO).

Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle newspaper yesterday at the GYO building on Woolford Avenue, Georgetown, President of the Organisation, Mrs. Jeanette Singh, said the aim is to serve poor Guyanese children whose parents cannot afford proper medical care for them.

She said the organisation started off treating cardiac cases but over time began handling several other illnesses that cannot be treated in Guyana. Though kids are targeted, Singh said that, since 2008, the organization has helped several adults. “We can’t say no to a sick person. A life is a life after all”.

The internationally recognised organisation is supported by voluntary donations and by means of fund-raising activities such as golf tournaments and boat cruises. Singh explained that the organisation faced a financial struggle initially, but over the past two years it has taken an amazing leap as people have been willing to make donations, provided they see the results.

Over the last five years, she said they have managed to help some 62 children, with the majority being from Guyana, and the minority from India, where one of the branches also exists. By the end of this year Singh said another branch in New York will be completed.

She recalled that a great accomplishment has been helping one young female to complete four open heart surgeries, with the final one that will sustain her life forthcoming.

Singh said they will be conducting a free cardiac clinic, which has already been approved by the Ministry of Health, from September 27 to October 2 later this year. She added that the organisation is working closely with the Caribbean Heart Institute (CHI).

Reflecting on the origin of the organisation, Singh said she never returned to Guyana after leaving at an early age, but was forced to do so when her father was murdered by bandits.

When she came home in the 1980’s, she recalled that she went searching for a childhood friend, Eva Baksh, whom she found teaching approximately 20 children at her home in La Grange, West Bank Demerara.

Her heart went out to the unfortunate children and, when she returned home, Singh said she began sending food, clothing and other items for them, with the help of her husband.

She said she also noticed that the children were in need of medical care and therefore sent medicines, which were distributed by her friend.

Having worked as a nurse for 25 years in the United Kingdom and Canada, Singh said she recognised that India was offering good health care at a low cost and she began investigating the possibility of taking the children there for medical treatment. Her husband proved to be very instrumental in this regard as he hails from India, she said.

As the demands kept growing, Singh said she decided to register what she was doing in Canada, which eventually led to the establishment of four branches.

Two GYO Committee members, Dwarka Nauth Budram and Muneshwar Sawh, showed up at the opening ceremony yesterday and expressed their delight at being able to accommodate the office of the organization on the GYO’s premises.

Budram said when they first heard about it, they realised that granting the space would assist the GYO in achieving some of its own objectives. He explained that the GYO is a charitable organisation that also seeks to reach out to poor people.

Budram said what he appreciates about the Three Rivers Kids Foundation is that it reaches out to people of all walks of life and is not confined to helping people of a particular race or religious background.