On Tuesday June 18^th, Quality assurance officer Dr. Hemal Kanvinde, Helpline executive Mr. Siva Shankar and three interns: Ms. Sharmila Palin, Ms. Papineni Nimisha and Mr. Diego Vallejo Riofrio held a conference and workshop with students of the Tagore Nursing College.  50 students of 1^st year nursing and 5 staff of the college participated in the Angels of Change volunteer training. It was held in the auditorium of the Tagore Dental College, Rathinamangalam, Chennai.

 

The event was mainly focused in introducing the future medical workers to the idea of organ donation. The notions emphasized were its importance, the procedure when an organ transplantation is necessary, and also how to communicate the idea of transplantation in different aspects such as to the family of recipients and donors, public awareness speeches and surveys.

 

The day started with an introduction by Siva Shankar explaining everything surrounding the donation of organs such as its medical features and legal aspects. Furthermore, Dr. Hemal Kanvinde held an explanation about the concept of Brain Death following the video by Neurosurgeon Dr. Sundeep Vaish and how to deal with grief. Later on, the students were divided in different groups where each cohort worked on assigned topics to present at the end of the day. The topics were public surveying, public awareness and event organization.

 

The surveying group’s task was to ask people around campus about organ donation. They presented their results at the end of the day with surprising outcomes. Moreover, the Public Awareness group did a presentation as if they were going to explain to a group of people about organ transplantation. Finally, the event organization group arranged an event where they would encourage organ donation.

 

In conclusion, these types of events and the active presence and encouragement of students are key to increment the donation rate and effectiveness in India’s future. MOHAN foundation will always be present and stimulate the development of these activities.