The Kidney Foundation of Canada's Manitoba Branch is hard at work promoting Kidney Awareness Month this March.

Health and Communications Manager Melanie Ferris explains their goal.

"Our goal is just to raise more awareness about kidney health issues in Manitoba. Kidneys are something that most people don't think about, and they don't talk about them too often. A lot of people that I meet don't even know what the kidneys do. We're just trying to get people to think more about how we can take care of our kidneys. We're a very small organization so we're trying to do our best."

She says most kidney protection starts at the home.

"One of the things that I'm really passionate about is teaching children how to read food labels. A lot of children really love juice, you might find that there's 40 grams of sugar in that one bottle. It's also going to help me gain weight, and obesity and being overweight is something that contributes to chronic kidney disease as well. Some other things people can do is reduce their smoking and alcohol intake."

She adds they're a small organization, and they'll continue to do their best to educate the public.