A Word From the Chairman

The Pro-Kidney Foundation of Santa Catarina was born from the desire of doing something extra for the patients who suffer from renal diseases, especially for the ones who have chronic diseases and need dialysis and renal transplant.

For years we have witnessed that the government does not provide everything these types of patients need; the long lines, especially in the governmental ambulatories located on the outskirts of the city, the low payment for medical hospital procedures and other public health difficulties known by the whole population were issues that motivated members of the Catarinense community to create the Pro-Kidney Foundation of Santa Catarina.

Pro-Kidney Foundation of Santa Catarina is a philanthropic non governmental institution, which serves the municipal, state and federal public sectors and has as a goal to treat acute and chronic renal patients. Its mission is to take care and save the most needed people. It attends 97% of patients who came from the governmental health system. Each year the Pro-Kidney Foundation of Santa Catarina provides more than 30.000 out patient consultations, almost 50.000 hemodyalisis and it reached a number of 420 renal transplants in 2006. The Pro-Kidney Foundation of Santa Catarina has units in Joinville, Jaraguá do Sul, São Bento do Sul, Mafra, Blumenau e Balneário Camboriú, attending 1.200.000 catarinenses population in the North and Northeast of the state. The greatest power of the Pro-Kidney Foundation of Santa Catarina is its 195.000 collaborators that with small amounts deposited in their phone and electricity bills help to create a new philosophy of treatment of very ill people that deserve care, love, respect and dignity.

CHAIRMAN MESSAGE

The theme self development reminds me of three characters of the play Cyrano de Bergerac, from Edmond Rostand, which took place in France in the XVII century: Roxana, Cristiano e Cyrano.

Roxana was a very beautiful woman, and the most admired of the area. Cristiano was a young boy, handsome and also desired by all women, however he had a problem: when he opened his mouth he could not say anything of value. Cyrano, on the other hand, was exactly the opposite: a born poet, with a pleasant sense of humor, very knowledgeable that enchanted people. Unfortunately, his nose was bigger than his culture and it gave him a look between grotesque and comic.

Both men were in love with Roxana. Cyrano, in an altruistic behavior, believing that it was easier to correct his friend’s stupidity than his own ugliness, decided to help Cristiano. He started writing what Cristiano should say in order to conquer the beautiful lady. Sometimes, Cyrano would hide behind a tree reciting poetry while his friend made gestures under the window of the desired young lady.

The end of this story is very well known. Roxana soon found out that the author of such beautiful sentences was not Cristiano, but the ugly and big nosed Cyrano. Cyrano then, surprised, noticed that he had chances to conquer Roxana as she was more interested in sensibility and sincerity than in superficiality.

The biggest mistake of Cristiano was not having accepted his friend’s help. His mistake was not having learned how to become a better person. He tried to be what he was not, and he did not try to improve what he was. Nobody needs to be born a poet; nobody needs to be born an entrepreneur, communicative, responsible, leader, flexible, helpful, and ambitious. Maybe we were all born with these so desired characteristics in the market, but they are hidden and latent. Maybe we only need to perceive their existence and make some effort to develop them.

If you are like Cristiano and you company is like Roxana, do not try to be like your idols, teachers or contributors of specialized magazines. Be yourself, making clear for yourself and for your interviewer that you are always learning, and not only repeating lines pre written by someone else. Remember Cyrano, who although doubted he in the beginning, ended up being successful with his imperfections.

Extracted from Eugênio Mussak’s Meta Competency.

José Aluísio Vieira
Chairman of the Pro-Kidney Foundation of Santa Catarina