On March 14, 2020 MOHAN Foundation was invited to conduct an awareness session on organ donation for the employees of Jayanita Exports Private limited in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh. Two awareness sessions were held at two different locations for the employees of Jayanita - the first at the Jayanita factory and the second at Jayanita Export Private Limited conference room.

 

The session was organized at the initiative taken by Dr. Shefali Sood of the Delhi chapter of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Yi (Young Indians). CII Yi is in partnering with MOHAN Foundation to take forward the cause of organ donation. The session was led by Ms. Pallavi Kumar, accompanied by Ms. Shriya Negi.

 

Established in 1978, Jayanita is a family owned manufacturing business with 38 years of experience of manufacturing and exporting metal garden decorative products like Citronella (i.e. oil based) torches and shelving hardware. It is part of a constellation group consisting of Jayanita Exports Pvt. Ltd. with its headquarters based in New Delhi.

 

The session began with a screening of the movie, 'Donate organs and save lives'. Ms. Pallavi Kumar interacted with the employees and discussed about organ donation. She explained the basic concepts of organ donation with the help of a powerpoint presentation.

 

Ms. Pallavi explained to them that age is not a barrier for donating an organ. She gave an example of an organ donation case which took place at Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research (PGIMER) Chandigarh where newborn baby became the youngest ever organ donor. Despite living for even less than 72 hours, the baby saved an adult's life. She also shared with the employeesthat an 88-year-old man, Late Shri Tejram, Trustee of Ganga Ram hospital donated his kidneys and liver.

 

While speaking on the subject of brain death, a short video was shown for better understanding and clarity on how brain death is different from coma.

 

She told them about the types of donors and the organs which can be donated after death. During her talk, she shared the current statistics of organ donation in India in comparison to other countries. She enlightened the employees about the  Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act (THOTA) and threw light on immediate blood relative and other than near relative donors.

 

She emphasized that solid organs can only be donated in case of brain death and tissues after circulatory death. She briefed the employees about how cornea donation takes place at home and the steps that one can follow for cornea donation. Ms. Pallavi also touched on the topic of myths related to organ donation and shared misconceptions that exist among people. Explaining the myth whether religion prohibits organ donation, she explained that most religions endorse the act of giving. She made everyone understand that no form of giving can be bigger than giving life to someone. She concluded her talk with few donor-recipient stories.

 

Mr. Puneet Bansal, Deputy Manager – Human Resources at Jayanita Factory asked whether unrelated donation can take place because one of his family members is in urgent need of transplant and there is no blood relative who can donate their kidney. Ms. Pallavi said that unrelated cases are a challenge to get approval from the committee. She said that their option is that they should register their family relative on the deceased (cadaver) donation waiting list of hospitals involved in organ donation and transplantation.

 

In the two sessions, close to 35 participants attended the session and 15 donor cards were picked up.