South Asian Cultural Project Community Partnerships

In the last week of November, we organized a talk led by Dr. Istvan Mucsi as part of our ongoing community outreach to explore ethno-cultural barriers to living donor kidney transplantation in the South Asian community. We are happy to have partnered up with the Punjabi Community Health Services (PCHS) for this presentation.

PCHS is a not-for-profit, charitable health service provider organization focused on empowering diverse communities. Some of their programs include empowering newcomers to integrate into Canadian society, providing support to children, youth and families in the areas of mental health and cultural conflict, and supporting affected community members through their Addictions and Opioids Program.

During our presentation, we spoke to members of the PCHS Senior’s program about kidney health and disease, transplantation, and organ donation. The discussion was positively engaging, and we heard participants share their knowledge of kidney health and express an interest in maintaining a good quality of physical and mental health.

Engaging with community members is an important part of our research study as it helps us understand opinions and beliefs around kidney disease and transplant from people of diverse backgrounds. These interactions with community members are what enable us to work towards our goal of providing equitable access to living donor kidney transplantation and improving the lives of individuals suffering from end stage kidney disease.

We enjoyed the opportunity to speak with the PCHS community about kidney disease and transplant and hope for our continued partnership to be a fruitful endeavour as we work together to improve the health of diverse communities.

Written By: Simran Chahal