Introduce a New Steemian | @dunnadelirium

Last night, I just realized the first person I told about Steemit has already joined the platform and she is no other than my dear friend Donnadelle. I knew she did register awhile back but it took many weeks for it to get approved so I wasn't really able to keep track. But last night, she liked one of my posts and I was shocked to see she already made her #introduceyourself post days ago.

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Donna is the first person that I have successfully convinced to join the platform. I told her about Steemit right away because she is like me, always online and personality-wise she will be at home in Steemit. We are almost the same age, 30ish and both living with ESRD or End Stage Renal Disease or Kidney Failure. In fact, she is my first ESRD friend ever. Let me tell you how our friendship began.

It was around August 2016, my first month on dialysis when I was having sleepless nights and was too depressed. I did not go out my room nor talk to anyone other than when I have a session and I have to have interactions with people. It was rock bottom of my life, too dark, too cold, too hopeless. One midnight, I remembered I had a coworker back in Convergys who had a sister that was looking for a kidney donor in Facebook awhile back, years back. So, I went in and dig that coworker's profile until I saw her sister's post, it was Donna. It was minutes past 12 midnight, I sent her a friend request and went on to reading her profile. I did not know that on the other end, she was stalking me, too. Few minutes more, she sent me words I never expected from strangers. She said she went through my profile and saw that I was newly diagnosed, she told me she knows why I am awake and she assured me she knows where I am coming from and told me things will get better. This was the start of one of the most beautiful bonds of friendship I have. I vented out my feelings with her, the sadness, the frustrations, the hopelessness. It went out of me like hell let loose. I did not know why but it was one of those rare moments when you feel at home with someone. She told me she experienced everything I told her and that was comforting to know that I was not alone and I am not getting mad, feeling different than everybody.

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Days past, she opened up about making a group for dialysis patients in the country. She told me she had made a Facebook group with her family as members and it's slowly getting more requests to join from patients. I thought that was a good idea and she told me more about it. Donna thinks we needed to build a group that will help people from different regions of the Philippines, because currently, all the attention, all these Foundations are mainly in Manila. She made me an admin of the group to keep me busy because boredom was making me more and more depressed. She also launched a chat group for all members. That chat group was instrumental in making me realize a lot of things. I guess I can say that it made me bid goodbye to depression.

Photo credits to Dialysis Support Group, Philippines (DSGP)

In the chat group, I was able to meet a lot of patients other than Donna, most of them were younger than us and been dealing with the illness for years. It was in the chat group that I realized how fortunate I am. I met people wanting to have kids but can't have one because of the illness, people who missed their youth because of the illness, people who were left by families because they were ill, people who go out and beg people for money just to be able to afford their dialysis treatments and many more stories of struggles living with this disease. We talked everyday, day and night and share stories. We comforted each other, we helped each other in anyway we can. We empowered each other in that chat room. Despite having different personalities, we have been united like a family.

Photo credits to Dialysis Support Group, Philippines (DSGP)

The small group grew into a hundred heads then thousands and continued to grow and now we have 6000 plus people. 90% of it are patients and some 10% are families and friends of patients. It was made possible partly because Donna and the team behind the group were doing their best to make the group a haven for everyone. We had to face a lot of challenges along the way. We dealt with people who tried to corrupt patients. We had to make rigid rules because some entities went in to make money out of the members which was very much against our principles. These scam-my people behind this ploys hated us but we just went on to informing our members of the dangers of being scammed and empowered them to know better and not to despair despite our situation.

Photo credits to Dialysis Support Group, Philippines (DSGP)

Donna and I and some other admins pooled our own money and organized events in Manila and other places in the Philippines. We cannot solicit or ask donations since we are not really a foundation yet. So, we use our own personal funds to make things happen. Before I pledged my money to any of our events, I already knew that Donna helps a lot of patients with her own money. But she does not want it known, I just know because people tell me. Sorry, Donna. Hahaha! When I asked Donna why she does it when she herself needs money, she just answered me with, "Generosity is contagious, Kar."

Photo credits to Dialysis Support Group, Philippines (DSGP)

Donna is the breadwinner of her family. She works 2 jobs online at night time, just to fund her treatment, medications, send her kid to school and to help her mom. We're not supposed to work at night because it triggers our hypertension but she has to do what she has to do and I salute her for that. Despite not having much, she still tries to share to people. I was surprised one day, she sent me a Never Give Up Bag and her daughter, "H," gave me a stuffed animal she named Freya, a firefox. It came in the mail one day and it had a handwritten note in it, I treasure these gifts and bring them to dialysis often.

Donna is from Mindanao, in Cagayan de Oro, the city of golden friendship. Coincidentally, indeed, my friendship with her is golden. Last September, Donna was invited to go to Cebu by her employer and I thought it was a good time to meet her since Cebu is near Leyte. I booked a flight and planned a meetup with other patients in Cebu. I saw her for the first time then, we both skipped dialysis just to spend sometime with our fellow patients. We had a great time and enjoyed food tripping, we enjoyed a seafood buffet! YOLO! Ahahaha! We met other patients and showed to the group a facebook live of what we were doing, we talked about the group and its future.

That's Donna, me, Paul and Caroling!

People are asking why we aren't SEC registered when we are already so many at 6000 and they think it's not right for us to be funding group events ourselves because it would not be possible to sustain it in the future. The thing is, it actually costs 1 million to register as a foundation. SEC asks for a million pesos bond to be registered. This has been a challenge for us evidently but we make the most of what we have just to make things happen. Donna has been telling me, that we will not allow a piece of paper to hinder our will to help our fellow patients. We know we can help more if we were a foundation but since we aren't there yet, we will help all we can the best way we know how. Currently, we pride in being a community or a support group that helps in the psychosocial aspects of people living with kidney failure. We inform, empower, and encourage our fellow patients to continue to live with a purpose despite being ill.

Photo credits to Dialysis Support Group, Philippines (DSGP)

We organize events and let the patients enjoy bonding moments. If we can afford it, we give them tokens or souvenirs. In one of our events we let them draw a kidney. It looked fun and everybody enjoyed it, this was on our first year anniversary. Donna and I were not there but we were definitely hands-on with the planning. Last December, it was our second Christmas as a group but our first time to held a Christmas party. Donna was able to attend it and paid for the venue but I wasn't able to join because my mom won't let me and there was no promo fare then. Ahahaha! But with the help of Donna, I was able to arrange to donate a fat assed porky called lechon. It was a success and everyone had fun, I was so happy to see the pics but I really wished I was there. Maybe this year, I will be.

Photo credits to Dialysis Support Group, Philippines (DSGP)

Other than leading the group, Donna and I get in touch to talk about anything under the sun since we have so many things in common. She is also a mom and has one daughter. We share lifehacks of being a mom and being a daughter to our moms and our many other roles. Coincidentally, Donna also has a sister named, Karen. We're probably in tune because she is Donnadelle and my name is Karen Belle, we literally rhyme.

I'm pretty sure, Donna will like it here in Steemit and I look forward to collaborating with her in many things Steemit for the good of our group and in the service of our fellow patients that we want to empower. Currently, we have a Facebook Group and all our members are Facebook users but that's just the start. Our main goal is actually to help people who are in need more of help and we know that more of these people do not have access to Facebook. There's a lot to be done, we are making baby steps to make it happen.

An intro to our position paper to the Congress, this document was done by Donna and me for the group DSGP

Last January, Donna and I drafted a position paper and passed it to the Health Committee in the Congress to provide inputs on what the legislative body should consider to be in the new Comprehensive Dialysis Bill that they are drafting. Donna and I worked for it for 3 days and 3 nights and it was a great feeling that we were one of the few groups that were actually asked to do it.

I invited her in Steemit because I know Donna as a selfless person and she has unselfish goals to help many people. I know, with her wisdom and beautiful personality, she can add beauty to the platform. Help me welcome her and show her she deserves a spot in here, she deserves to be a Steemian!

Fight strong, Donna and know that I will fight the good fight alongside with you as long as I live. Laban lang and mabuhay!

THANK YOU FOR READING! GOD BLESS!

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