News: Tanzania Launches First Kiswahili Kidney Website
Earlier this week, health experts launched the first Kiswahili language website providing information to combat kidney related issues on the rise in Africa. The website, launched in Dar es Salaam, will be a resource for prevention and support for Kiswahili-speaking kidney patients.
The website content comes from the Kidney Book. The website and book were translated and prepared with the help of Dr. Gabriel Upunda and a nephrologist, Dr. Sanjay Pandya, the chief mentor of Kidney Education Foundation from India, and TMJ Hospital.
There are over 100 million Kiswahili speakers and this is the first book and website on kidney disease aimed at helping millions of people battle kidney complications.
Kiswahili
Kiswahili, more commonly known as Swahili, is a Bantu language spoken in Tanzania, Burundi, Congo, Kenya, Mayotte, Mozambique, Oman, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, Uganda, the UAE and U.S.
It is an official language of Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya and is used as a lingua franca throughout East Africa. There are approximately five million native speakers and an additional 135 million people speak Swahili as a second language.
The name Swahili comes from the plural form of an Arabic word meaning “coastal dwellers.” When the prefix ki- is attached, Kiswahili, the meaning of the word becomes “coastal language.”
To read more, please see: Tanzania: Experts Launch Kidney Website.
