Doctors teach kidney care to Cotabato City communities

KORONADAL CITY, Philippines  --- A group of  physicians launched Thursday  a series of sessions with public school teachers to impart basic knowledge on care for kidneys as a closing activity for the observance of June as a National Kidney Month.

The doctors, led by kidney specialist Pamela Mamaluba of the NeproTech Dialysis and Diagnostic Center in Cotabato City, first lectured teachers at the Sero Central Elementary School (SCES) on basic kidney care, which they can also teach to their pupils.

The SCES, established in the 1950s, is Cotabato City’s second largest, located at the city’s most populated district, the Rosary Heights area.

This year’s theme for the National Kidney Month, “Malusog na Bato, Yan ang Gusto Ko,” was the main parameter of the crash lessons imparted by Mamaluba and her colleagues to the Muslim and Christian teachers that participated in the activity.

Moro residents in riverside and marshy areas in Cotabato City and Maguindanao have long been regarded by health authorities as most vulnerable to kidney problems, accustomed to eating dried, salted fish caught just around their villages.

Almost a hundred teachers of SCES also availed themselves of free blood sugar, cholesterol examinations, and electro-cardiogram tests by Mamaluba’s group, initiated as part of their outreach missions while observing the National Kidney Month. 

The activity of Mamaluba’s group is supported by the Department of Health and the chief of the Cotabato Regional Medical Center, physician Helen Yambao.

Mamaluba, an ethnic Maguindanao, and other Moro doctors in in Cotabato City, among them Sam Manibpel, Dimarin Dimatingkal, and Moctar Mabang, have actively been giving health lectures  to Central Mindanao’s communities.