Help Yonathan Duphi Get a Life-Saving Kidney Transplant

To say our beloved Yonathan “Duphi” Bekele Teshome has had a challenging 11 years would be an understatement. At just 31 years old, he is an end- stage chronic kidney disease patient who has been on dialysis for 10 years. Despite his condition, he remains hopeful and motivated by his strong faith and support from loved ones. Inspired by his own journey as a

kidney disease patient, he completed his bachelors in public health and is currently pursuing his masters. Duphi accomplished all this while going in and out of the hospital for regular dialysis treatments, countless surgeries and near death experiences. After all these years, we are happy to share that he has finally found a kidney donor! However, this kidney transplant has to be performed in Turkey and will cost 5 million Ethiopian birr, roughly $50,000 USD. We deeply appreciate your continued support over the years in covering costs for regular dialysis and hospitalization. Please join us in supporting this incredible young man to finally receive a kidney and pursue his bright future ahead of him.

A quote that has kept Duphi motivated through trying times:

“not by my might but through Christ who strengthens me in life”

Since our beneficiary, Yonathan (Duphi) Bekele, does not live in a GoFundMe supported country, we would like to outline our transparent plan for transfer of funds. At the end of September, or sooner if we reach our goal of $50,000, Betelhem Mulugeta, the organizer, who is also Yonathan Duphi Bekele’s cousin currently residing in California, USA, will wire:

⁃ ~$16,000 directly to Yonathan (Duphi) Bekele in Ethiopia for transportation, visa, accommodations, etc.

⁃ ~$34,000 to the hospital in Turkey where Duphi will receive treatment, for the procedure/transplant, medication, tests, etc

If there are concerns regarding the transfer of funds, please let us know.

Thank you for your support!

The Family!

A message from Duphi:

“Through patience and perseverance, I believe people can reach their dreams. My life has been full of struggles, battles, and problems but through it all, I persevered and reached where I am now. After graduating high school with great distinction, I enrolled at Arba Minch University to study medicine in the year 2011 G.C. It was a childhood dream of mine to become a doctor, I worked so hard during high school to make sure I could get into med school. That hard work had paid off and I got into med school. Little did I know that life had other plans for me.

 Arba Minch University is located on the outskirts of Ethiopia, it’s a growing tourist attraction. After a year of my enrollment, I was diagnosed with a series of illnesses and was forced to come back home to Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia. I saw this as a minor setback and decided to join a local med school in Addis Ababa. But life had another stone to throw at me.

 Upon completion of my first year in the new school, I was hospitalized and diagnosed with end-stage renal failure in the year 2014. This time I was forced to drop out of med school and start dialysis. I had to give my health and treatment a priority. While doing my dialysis I didn’t want to sit around and let this take over my life instead I started volunteering at different institutions. With help from my nurses and doctors, I also learnt about the dialysis machine and its mechanism of work; whenever it was my session I started helping around the dialysis center as well. Over time I started reading about dialysis, kidney disease, and the kidneys. I became fascinated with the works of the kidney and the dialysis machine.

 Going through dialysis hasn’t been a walk in the park for me. I had to endure so many beatings, but I never stayed down for any of them. I have gone through so many surgeries, I have counted 25 surgeries so far, been in and out of hospitals to many times to count, been through so many life-threatening moments, and faced death one too many times but in all I came through and persevered. During this time, I had once lost 3.5 litters of blood as one of the many AV-fistulas I had, had ruptured. It was a matter of seconds that save my life as was put by the doctors. I also recall, to some extent, moments where I went unconscious and conscious back and forth because of raised and low blood pressure. As it is said, “not by my might but through Christ who strengthens me in life” I was able to persevere through all this.

I am a very spiritual person deeply rooted in the word of God; I like to read the bible more often than any other book. Reading and traveling are my two most favorite hobbies.

 The past ten years as a dialysis patient, have taught me a lot about myself, how to overcome hardships, how to live with others. I have also been able to learn about empathy, compassion, and love. I now know and understand I am stronger than I seem. And this is all a catapult to spring me forward and not to hold me back.

Going through this journey of dialysis, I was able to get my bachelors degree in public health and I am now currently in my final year of my master in general public health study at Addis Ababa university.

After a very paradoxical long ten years on dialysis and eleven years as a chronic kidney disease patient, I have finally found a kidney donor. As is known kidney transplant is the best mode of treatment for patients in end stage renal failure, and I look forward to peeing after a very long ten years. However, kidney transplant is a procedure that is not performed in Ethiopia as much and the cost of it is also too expensive. We have started the process towards the kidney transplant surgery to be done in Turkey, and have been informed that the cost of the whole process will be around 5 million Ethiopian birr.

I thank and appreciate everyone who is helping me embark this long awaited life saving journey!

God Bless!”