An awareness talk was arranged at Shree Ramvardayini High School and Jr. College, Nirbade, Khandat - Pali, taluka in Chiplun district of Ratnagiri on 13^th March 2021. After obtaining permission from the officials of the school, using a PPT, the talk went smoothly. The audience was the students of 9^th to 12^th class of the school. A total of 97 students and 6 teachers were present for the programme.

 

Mr. Shubham Lad gave a comprehensive talk on organ donation. With stories of famous personalities who passed away unfortunately due to unavailability of organs and numbers of people dying due to same reason annually in India, he highlighted the need for awareness. He also spoke of the types of organ donation i.e., living and deceased donation and organs that can be donated in each case. Video explaining brain death by Neurosurgeon Dr Sandeep Vaishya made the concept of brain death and coma clear to the students.

 

The students were briefed about the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act, 1994. This was helpful for them to overcome their fear about illegal activities such as organ trading. Information about eye donation and skin donation was also provided. Mr Lad spoke of the common myths in people’s minds and also gave examples of inspiring donors. 

 

He then explained how government bodies regulate organ donation and showed sample donor cards. He introduced the work of MOHAN Foundation, its activities to promote deceased organ donation and transplantation and involvement in various other tasks like training the transplant coordinators, creating a network of hospitals etc.

 

He urged the students to sign up as organ donors when they turn 18 and to talk about this subject to their families and enlighten them about the pros of organ donation.

 

The talk ended with the video of Smita Soman, a kidney recipient, who underlines the importance of organ donation and urges everyone to donate organs after death.

 

Question and answer session was also successful and response from students and staff members was quite phenomenal.