Brazil is well-known to be a country where people like to enjoy life: dancing, gathering for carnival or spending time under the sun while playing beach volley are a must!

Bruna Pacheco, 31, the owner of dance studio in Guarapuava ( in the state of Parana) is one of them but what makes her different is the way she used her passion for dancing to raise awareness of kidney disease.

Bruna is a dance teacher. She offers classes to people of all ages and in several different disciplines, from ballet to jazz dance, tap dance and rhythmic gymnastics. She has been teaching for 11 years and has herself been dancing since she was a toddler!

Last year, Bruna got involved in World Kidney Day. One day, while at a public sport centre, she met two women who were organizing activities to raise awareness of kidney disease and was asked to give her support and help spread awareness in her dance school among her pupils.

Bruna felt immediately touched by this request – one of her close friends suffered from kidney disease for years and had a kidney transplant that changed his life.

After making some research on World Kidney Day and discovering our last year’s call to action “move your feet for WKD”, Bruna got really motivated to get her pupils involved in our call to action. She created a choreography on the song “Move Your Feet” for each of her dance class. “Kids, teens and adults had a lot of fun and were happy to learn about their kidneys” she said.

This year again, Bruna will be engaging in raising awareness activities at her dance studio. She finds the 2017 theme “kidney disease and obesity” very important as she is astonished by how many children and adolescents are overweight today. “Parents don’t have time to cook healthy meals anymore; it is easier to just buy ready-to-eat meals. Also, they don’t always take the time to bring their kids to sport activities”.

We really love her ideas of teaching children healthy habits in a playful way. By dancing, children learn to be confident in their body and be healthy while having fun.

So, do you feel inspired? This year our call to action is “Move 4 Kidneys”

What about creating a dance and sending us a video of it?

Or, if dancing is not your thing, take a picture of you while running, swimming, cycling, boxing, etc.

Be creative! Stay healthy!

Want to know more about Bruna Pacheco studio de Dança:

Participate in #move4kidneys here: https://www.worldkidneyday.org/2017-campaign/move4kidneys/