"The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence." With the faith and belief in these words of Denis Waitley, Ms. Jaishree Gupta Principal of Aravli International School, Faridabad invited MOHAN Foundation on July 1, 2016 to conduct awareness session on organ donation for the teachers of their school. The talk was coordinated by Ms.Hemagni, HR in charge of the school.
Ms. Jaishree is someone who believes in walking the talk. It is only after she herself was convinced of the lifesaving cause of organ donation and pledged to be an organ donor that she wished to pass on the message to the teachers in her school. Ms.Pallavi Kumar, Executive Director Delhi-NCR conducted the session and she was accompanied by Mareena Thomas, Programme Officer. Ms. Kumar started the session by asking how many amongst the audience had pledged to be an organ or an eye donor. Hardly 3-4 teachers out of the 150 present had done so. She accompanied the question by asking how many had heard of someone needing an organ or had gone through a transplant. Comparatively there were many, driving home the point that the demand for organs is outstripping the supply as most people in India do not know about organ donation and therefore do not pledge to be donors.
Given the recent kidney scam at a private hospital in New Delhi, the conversation moved to that. Ms Pallavi discussed why and how organ rackets exist and how not every hospital is a part of it and how a family in despair makes a desperate move to save the life of their loved ones by buying organs from poor people. She emphasized that the only solution to this entire problem was that more people voluntarily donated their organs and tissues after their death to save the life of others. This would help bridge the demand-supply gap and encourage healthy practices.
Through the awareness program it also came out that many teachers were not aware that in eye donation only corneas are taken. This shows the increasing need of awareness programs about organ donation to more and more people from all walks of life.
"If I donate my organs, in the future will my family will be given a preference if they need an organ?" asked a teacher. Ms. Pallavi asked the audience for their view. Most of the audience felt that when one makes a donation, it should be done with no expectaions and that when we add a motive to a donation it no more remains an altruistic act. They all felt that organ donation is all about altruism - gifting someone a life when one leaves.
Ms. Pallavi also shared the idea of conducting the volunteers training program 'Angels of Change' for the students with them being the change makers. One teacher herself came up to take the leadership for it. The response was overwhelming with most of the teachers taking the donor card. Some teachers took around two - three to motivate their family members for the cause.
150 teachers were present and 120 donor cards were taken.
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