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Kidney patient Sarita Gangapersad at her Cumuto home – Angelo Marcelle

Nightly dialysis treatments leave Sarita Gangapersad coughing and lethargic in the morning. A combination of kidney failure and lupus have left the 36-year-old dependent on the support of family. She is appealing to members of the public who are willing to donate a kidney to reach out to be tested.

Lupus is a disease that occurs when your body’s immune system attacks your own tissues and organs. Speaking to Newsday by phone, Gangapersad said she has had lupus since she was 15, but went into remission while still a teenager and was able to move on.

“I got married, graduated school, got a job, tried to get pregnant and then realised the lupus was affecting my health once again. And then the marriage didn’t work out because of my illness and the added stress of my job meant I had a lot of added stress in my life, and the lupus came back in full force.”

The Cumuto resident was diagnosed with renal failure at 30 and was put on daily dialysis while she looked for a compatible person for a kidney transplant.

“The dialysis, which I do every night, pulls all excess fluid out of the body, so in the morning I wake up dry and coughing. I do peritoneal dialysis, where the doctors placed a catheter in the stomach area and they give you a dialysis fluid that goes into tummy, cleanses the body from there and then pulls out the fluid afterwards.

Kidney patient Sarita Gangapersad stands next to her dialysis machine at her Cumuto home. – Angelo Marcelle

“It’s a gentler form of dialysis, from my experience, as opposed to haemodialysis, where they insert the catheter into your neck or arm and it pulls the blood out, cleanses it and puts it back in.

“I plug into the machine at night and it runs automatically while I’m sleeping, and when I wake up in the morning it’s done and I just unplug it and that’s it. I can go ahead and do what I want to do during the course of the day without being hooked up to a machine. My family helps me with maintenance and switching of the bags, etc.”

Usually, close family members are the best donors to provide a match, and one of her siblings was compatible.

“After about five years of testing at Mt Hope, which was slowed down by covid19, we found out my brother and I were compatible.

“We went into surgery in April this year, and in the operating theatre they realised he was having an allergic reaction to one of the anaesthetics. They had to make an immediate decision to save his life and had to stop the procedure. If they had gone on, it would have been fatal for him, so they stopped everything.

“It was devastating to reach to that point and then hear we couldn’t do the transplant any more.”

Gangapersad said her brother was no longer able to donate his kidney to her.

“It puts me in a predicament where I no longer had my donation, and I need to get the kidney. It’s five years I’ve been on dialysis, and that treatment can only go so far.

“I had an infection shortly after trying to do the transplant. I don’t know if it was the stress, but I had a cyst rupture on my kidney and had to be hospitalised yet again, and I’m still recovering from that.”

Gangapersad is on leave from her job as a mortgage officer, as after the first two years on dialysis she could not function.

“It took a little back and forth for me to intentionally be able to adjust to life, and it took a while for the doctors to determine what was the right dialysis prescription for me.

“In the two years it took for us to go back and forth, I developed gout and arthritis, and the pain was so bad, there were two weeks when I had a flare and during those times I couldn’t walk, I could barely get out of bed to do anything for myself. And so I had to leave work, as I couldn’t perform at my job.

“I’ve been out of work for three years and NIS can only go so far.”

She said her mother and siblings have been supporting her financially, but this has put a strain on them, as not all the services she needs are readily available in the public health system.

“Certain times we have to purchase medication. And in terms of testing, if something is wrong with me, it can take months to do an ultrasound, a CT scan, in the public system – and in my condition, I can’t wait months to get tested, because weeks from now I could be dead.

“So it would fall to the family now to get this money so I can get tested privately to get the medical attention I need to preserve my life.

“I am grateful to the system. They provide free medication in terms of the dialysis. It would have been impossible to pay for this on my own.”

Gangapersad said people interested in being tested would need to have B or O blood types. Anyone with existing medical conditions would be evaluated by the doctors, but she believes they would look for someone who is relatively healthy in order to accept an organ donation.

“I need to reach out to the public to see if anyone is willing to get tested/give a kidney as the case might be. Saving a life is what it comes down to.”

People interested in donating a kidney to Gangapersad can contact her at 498-8684.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Flowing summer attire, vibrant, tropical prints and a festive atmosphere set the tone for the return of Beach House Breakfast Party on Saturday 9 July, after a two-year hiatus.

A change in venue from its usual Holetown location to the new venue at Copacabana, seemed to have no effect on the patrons that descended on the beachfront property to take in what has become a Crop Over staple.

The all-inclusive event featured an expansive spread of delectable treats and well-stocked bars with free-flowing drinks. Embraces and smiles were the order of the day as those who congregated at the beachfront locale could be observed reacquainting themselves with friends, some of whom they had not seen since the pandemic struck.

As the venue gradually filled up after its 4 am start time, it was clear that patrons had been anxiously anticipating the return of one of the island’s premier events.

Many familiar faces were observed among the crowd, with Deputy Prime Minister of Barbados Hon Santia Bradshaw, Minister Kirk Humphrey as well as Member of Parliament for St Michael South-Central Marsha Caddle in attendance, among several others.

Just like the deejays who preceded them, the cast of artistes kept the party vibes high. Nikita hit the stage just after 8 am, to kick start the event’s live entertainment and was met with a rousing welcome as this Crop Over signalled a return of her own. Soca baddie Faith Callender later joined her for their 2022 trending hit Bestie before Faith went on to deliver several of her own tunes.

Mole touched the stage next and as usual, the ladies welcomed the landing of the ‘daddy’ with screams and strict obedience to his every instruction. His collab with Mikey, Nostalgic, received similar love before the reigning Soca Monarch was joined on stage by iWeb for their collab Badd. Mikey further proceeded to whip the crowd into a frenzy when he delivered several of his hits, along with his most recent 2022 tracks.

Bringing the live entertainment to a climactic close just after 10 am was none else than the Hyper Dawg himself, Lil Rick. His customary antics commanded the audience’s attention and the crowd’s response matched his high-energy performance.

As patrons animatedly pranced from side to side, embraced friends, gyrated and sang some of the artistes’ tunes almost word for word, it was clear that Beach House Breakfast Party had returned with a bang and delivered on its promise to provide the best in food, drinks and entertainment yet again.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Tekst en beeld Euritha Tjan A Way PARAMARIBO — “Monique Pool is recent door mij benoemd als focal point voor

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Black Immigrant Daily News

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s president and prime minister agreed to resign Saturday after the country’s most chaotic day in months of political turmoil, with protesters storming both officials’ homes and setting fire to one of the buildings in a rage over the nation’s severe economic crisis.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he will leave office once a new government is in place, and hours later the speaker of Parliament said President Gotabaya Rajapaksa would step down Wednesday. Pressure on both men grew as the economic meltdown set off acute shortages of essential items, leaving people struggling to buy food, fuel and other necessities.

Police had attempted to thwart promised protests with a curfew, then lifted it as lawyers and opposition politicians denounced it as illegal. Thousands of protesters entered the capital, Colombo, and swarmed into Rajapaksa’s fortified residence. Video images showed jubilant crowds splashing in the garden pool, lying on beds and using their cell phone cameras to capture the moment. Some made tea, while others issued statements from a conference room demanding that the president and prime minister go.

It was not clear if Rajapaksa was there at the time, and government spokesman Mohan Samaranayake said he had no information about the president’s movements.

Protesters later broke into the prime minister’s private residence and set it on fire, Wickremesinghe’s office said. It wasn’t immediately clear if he was there when the incursion happened.

Earlier, police fired tear gas at protesters who gathered in the streets to march on the presidential residence, waving flags, banging drums and chanting slogans. In all, more than 30 people were hurt in Saturday’s chaos.

Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said in a televised statement that he informed Rajapaksa that parliamentary leaders had met and decided to request he leave office, and the president agreed. However, Rajapaksa will remain temporarily to ensure a smooth transfer of power, Abeywardena added.

“He asked me to inform the country that he will make his resignation on Wednesday the 13th, because there is a need to hand over power peacefully,” Abeywardena said.

“Therefore there is no need for further disturbances in the country, and I urge everyone for the sake of the country to maintain peace to enable a smooth transition,” the speaker continued.

Opposition lawmaker Rauff Hakeem said a consensus was reached for the speaker of Parliament to take over as temporary president and work on an interim government.

Wickremesinghe announced his own impending resignation but said he would not step down until a new government is formed, angering protesters who demanded his immediate departure.

“Today in this country we have a fuel crisis, a food shortage, we have the head of the World Food Program coming here and we have several matters to discuss with the IMF,” Wickremesinghe said. “Therefore, if this government leaves there should be another government.”

Wickremesinghe said he suggested to the president to have an all-party government, but did not say anything about Rajapaksa’s whereabouts. Opposition parties were discussing the formation of a new government.

Rajapaksa appointed Wickremesinghe as prime minister in May in the hope that the career politician would use his diplomacy and contacts to resuscitate a collapsed economy. But people’s patience wore thin as shortages of fuel, medicine and cooking gas only increased and oil reserves ran dry. Authorities have also temporarily shuttered schools.

The country is relying on aid from India and other nations as leaders try to negotiate a bailout with the International Monetary Fund. Wickremesinghe said recently that negotiations with the IMF were complex because Sri Lanka was now a bankrupt state.

Sri Lanka announced in April that it was suspending repayment of foreign loans due to a foreign currency shortage. Its total foreign debt amounts to $51 billion, of which it must repay $28 billion by the end of 2027.

Months of demonstrations have all but dismantled the Rajapaksa political dynasty, which has ruled Sri Lanka for most of the past two decades but is accused by protesters of mismanagement and corruption. The president’s older brother resigned as prime minister in May after violent protests saw him seek safety at a naval base.

With fuel costs making other forms of travel impossible for many, protesters crowded onto buses and trains Saturday to get to the capital, while others made their way on bicycles and on foot. At the president’s seaside office, security personnel tried in vain to stop protesters who pushed through fences to run across the lawns and inside the colonial-era building.

At least 34 people including two police officers were hurt in scuffles. Two were in critical condition, while others sustained minor injuries, according to an official at the Colombo National Hospital who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to the media.

Privately owned Sirasa Television said at least six of its workers, including four reporters, were hospitalized after being beaten by police while covering the protest at the prime minister’s home.

Sri Lanka Medical Council, the country’s top professional body, warned that hospitals were running with minimum resources and would not be able to handle any mass casualties from the unrest.

Protest and religious leaders said Rajapaksa has lost his mandate and it is time for him to go.

“His claim that he was voted in by the Sinhala Buddhists is not valid now,” said Omalpe Sobitha, a prominent Buddhist leader. He urged Parliament to convene immediately to select an interim president.

U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka Julie Chung on Friday asked people to protest peacefully and called for the military and police “to grant peaceful protesters the space and security to do so.”

“Chaos & force will not fix the economy or bring the political stability that Sri Lankans need right now,” Chung tweeted.

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By KRISHAN FRANCIS, Associated Press

Associated Press writers Bharatha Mallawarachi in Colombo and Krutika Pathi in New Delhi contributed to this report.

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