On 19th Feb 2020, the Department of Public Administration of Anna Adarsh College for Women, in association with MOHAN Foundation, organised a seminar “Let’s Talk about Organ Donation”.
Around 200 students from the Post Graduate & Research Department of Public Administration, Commerce, Chemistry, Food and Nutrition departments and volunteers of NSS attended the seminar held at the Conference Hall of the college.
Dr. Jayashree Ghosh, Director of the Institute, welcomed the speakers and the students and highlighted the importance of the cause. Dr. Hemal Kanvinde, Quality Assurance Officer of MOHAN Foundation gave a talk on Concepts of Organ Donation. She spoke of the need for organs, what, how and when can organs be donated. This was followed by a film explaining brain death.
Mrs. Lalitha Raghuram, Country Director of MOHAN Foundation thanked the management for the opportunity. She conducted a short quiz and explained the models of organ donation used by different countries. She highlighted the way Spain practices organ donation, the opt-in and opt-out models, she used students in a role play exercise to explain swap donation. Mrs. Lalitha spoke of the need to be aware and to speak about organ donation.
There was a panel discussion where speakers shared their personal experiences, helping the students understand the importance of organ donation. Dr. Shanthi Ravi, Principal of Anna Adarsh College narrated an experience that motivated to pledge for eye donation. She asked the students to have a kind heart, help others and leave behind a living legacy through organ and eye donation. Mrs. Usha Balasubramanian, In-charge – Patient Support Group, MOHAN Foundation related her husband’s illness and how kidney failure was detected very late through a medical check-up. She described her struggle to find answers to all the questions by reading online, speaking with other patients on dialysis and asking doctors. She said that families need to learn everything about the disease so that many complications can be averted. Her story was very heartrending and clearly spelt out the tribulations of a family of an organ failure patient.
Mrs. Lalitha Raghuram narrated the story of Ms. Shreya Siddanagowder a double hand transplant recipient from Pune. She explained the altruism of the family who agreed to donate the hands of their loved one and this was a way Shreya can think of a happy and productive future.
The event ended with a student summing up the seminar and vote of thanks delivered by Dr. Usha K, Head of Post Graduate & Research Department of Public Administration. 30 students pledged for organ donation at the end of the programme.
MOHAN Foundation thanks the college and Dr. K. Usha for making this seminar possible.
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