MOHAN Foundation conducted an awareness session on organ donation at Sachdeva Public School, Pitampura on August 2, 2017. The resource persons for the session were Dr. Muneet Sahi, Programme Manager and Ms. Mareena Thomas, Programme Officer.

 

Every year, Times of India (TOI) organizes various awareness sessions on organ donation in different schools across Delhi-NCR in collaboration with MOHAN Foundation as part of a special campaign supporting organ donation. This is TOI’s fifth consecutive year. The 12-14-day long campaign starts on August 1 and culminates on TOI’s designated organ donation day. The session at Sachdeva Public School was part of this campaign.

 

Dr. Muneet began the session by giving basic information to students about the organs that can be donated by a person when alive and after death. Living donation is when someone donates one of their organs – usually a kidney or a part of liver - to someone related i.e. blood relative or unrelated (extended family/friends) as laid down in The Transplant Act. This need arises when a country’s donation rate is so low that a patient suffering from end stage organ failure may not get an organ through deceased donation.

 

Ms. Mareena continued the session by explaining brain death and how only in the case of brain death organ donation is possible. She further explained various myths and facts that abound organ donation. One of the major myths being that organ and tissue donation disfigures the body. She clarified that the appearance of the body is not altered. A highly skilled surgical transplant team removes the organs and tissues which can be transplanted in other patients.  Surgeons stitch up the body carefully, hence no disfigurement occurs.

 

The students were encouraged to speak to their family members about organ donation and understand what their family feels about the cause. They were also told about Angels of Change program where they could be trained to conduct their own awareness sessions on organ donation and hence become change makers to promote the cause.

 

Close to 250 students from STD XI attended the session along with their respective subject and class teachers.