Event

Tea with Africa: Chronic Kidney Disease in Africa: Lived experiences and opportunities for improving systems of care

Chronic-Kidney-Disease-Africa

To mark the Word Kidney day, The George Institute for Global Health invites you to the session of the 'Tea with Africa' conversation on Thursday 09th March at 8:00am GMT, 9:00am WAT, 9:00am BST, 10:00am CAT, 11:00am EAT, 1:30pm IST, 6:00pm AEST.

The topic to be explored is, 'Chronic Kidney Disease in Africa: Lived experiences and opportunities for improving systems of care'. The event will provide a brief overview of the current situation, provide insight into what is working with current examples, and discuss ideas for the future.

This event will feature a first-hand account of people living with chronic kidney disease in Zimbabwe, share current efforts to improve the quality of life of people living with CKD in Africa, and identify further opportunities for improving systems of care. 

  • ‘Life as a patient with chronic kidney disease in Zimbabwe’,  Mr Sibanda, is a member of the Kidney Association of Zimbabwe and suffers from chronic kidney failure  
  • ‘Chronic kidney disease challenges, responses and opportunities in Zimbabwe’, Dr. Rumbidzai Dahwa, Head of the Renal department at Sally Mugabe hospital and Lecturer in the Department of Medicine at the University of Zimbabwe College of Health Sciences 
  • ‘CKD-Africa collaboration:  Experiences and opportunities for researching chronic kidney disease in Africa’, Dr Cindy George, Chair CKD-Africa and Senior Scientist at the South African Medical Research Council 

Speakers and audience are invited to: 

  • Reflect on the lived experiences of people living with CKD in Africa  
  • Share potential approaches that may reduce the instances of chronic kidney failure in Africa and beyond 
  • Share interests around collaborative research, policy advocacy, and capacity-building activities related to CKD in Africa 

A reflection blog will follow the event. Audience members are invited to share their thoughts on inclusion. 

This event will be recorded for distribution by:

  • The George Institute for Global Health  
  • The Non-Communicable Diseases Department of the Ministry of Health and Child Care, Zimbabwe 
  • National Physicians Association of Zimbabwe 
  • Social media platforms of partners including Kidney Association of Zimbabwe 

Register here

Speakers

  • Dr. Rumbidzai Dahwa

    She graduated with an honour's degree in Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from the University of Zimbabwe in 2003. She pursued postgraduate studies in Australia and qualified as a Specialist Physician and Nephrologist in December 2013.  Dr. Dahwa is also Head of the Renal department at Sally Mugabe Central hospital and does consultant renal work at Parirenyatwa Hospital. She is currently a Lecturer in the Internal Medicine Unit  at the University of Zimbabwe Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. The University of Zimbabwe (UZ) is a public university in Harare, Zimbabwe. She is also pursuing her PhD under Martin Gallagher at The George Institute. 

  • Lysias Sibanda

    She is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe with a wide range of experience in the financial sector. He has kidney failure and is passionate about causing a shift in the level of service to Kidney patients in Zimbabwe through the Kidney Association of Zimbabwe and the organization which he leads BBRAUN Zimbabwe ( Pvt) Limited spreading dialysis services though out the whole country.

  • Dr Cindy George (Chair- CKD-Africa)

    Dr George is a Senior Scientist at the South African Medical Research Council and holds a PhD from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. Cindy’s research area is centred on chronic kidney disease (CKD) in African populations, focussing on characterizing the burden of CKD and examining the risk factors and underlying mechanisms associated with the disease. She was key in establishing and currently manages the CKD-Africa Collaboration, which is an African network of studies with renal outcomes. The aim of the network is to pool individual participant data (IPD) to, (1) determine the burden of CKD in Africa, (2) create resources that would allow the burden of CKD to be tracked and (3) enable CKD projections to be made in the context of Africa. To date, the network has access to 60126 IPD, from 15 African countries; with more studies in the process of enrolment. Dr George has a good publication history, with 32 of her outputs being published in the past 7 years (post-PhD). She is a South African National Research Foundation-rated scientist, and Africa-Oxford (AfOx) Fellow. 

  • Host: Dr. Sradha Kotwal

    Dr Kotwal is a clinical nephrologist at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney; Program Head of the Renal and Metabolic Division at The George Institute for Global Health. Her research interests include novel and pragmatic clinical trials and she is passionate about increasing clinical trial access for patients with kidney disease. Dr Kotwal has expertise in translating research into clinical practice and in-depth knowledge of statistical techniques, epidemiology and clinical trial design. She has engaged with projects in India and Fiji looking at the burden of kidney disease and renal replacement therapies.

Further reading