With the objective of helping poor patients gain access to affordable dialysis treatment, The Tamilnad Kidney Research (TANKER) Foundation moved into a new building here on Tuesday.
Earlier, the foundation was functioning out of TVS Hospital with 11 units. The new building, located in one of the quiet lanes of Chokkikulam, will prove to be convenient to patients as there is barely any major vehicular traffic, said Trustee of Arogya Welfare Trust D. Jaganathan.
“The foundation and the trust have been working together for many years to provide subsidised treatment to patients. We have a passion for working with those who want to save people,” he said.
A total of 16 new machines were donated to the foundation by members of Rotary Club of Madurai West and Cognizant Foundation. Both organisations donated ₹49 lakh each to purchase the new units, taking the total units to 24.
Cognizant Foundation director S. Ramamurthy, said their foundation usually looked to support organisations that worked in education and public health sectors. “The governments invest poorly in the health sphere and we do not meet industry standards in matters of education. We must focus on setting better standards. The TANKER Foundation is one of our success stories and we like to talk about it with pride,” he said.
Rotary Club of Madurai West member Hanif Tayub also said they jumped to help TANKER Foundation because of the quality of their work.
TANKER Foundation founder trustee Georgi Abraham said getting treated for kidney failure was an expensive affair in earlier times. The treatment had become affordable thanks to the intervention of organisations like the foundation.
Latha Kumaraswami, managing trustee, thanked several contributors to the project and said it was actor Surya’s initial monetary contribution to the Madurai unit that kept them going.
