On July 6, 2021, MOHAN Foundation was invited to conduct an online awareness session on organ donation for the staff of Shree Shree Laxminarayan Trust (SSLT) Gujarat Senior Secondary School, Civil Lines, Delhi. The session was coordinated by Dr. Muneet Kaur Sahi, Programme Manager, MOHAN Foundation-Delhi NCR. She was also the resource person.

 

SSLT Gujarat Senior Secondary School is the oldest Linguistic Minority Government Aided School of Delhi. The school was established by Shree Delhi Gujarati Samaj in 1905 with the vision of creating an opportunity to get rich and wholesome learning experience to those under its umbrella. Presently, the school is providing meaningful quality education to more than 1200 students.

 

At the beginning of the session, Ms. Jagriti Munjal, TGT English, SSLT Gujarat Sr. Sec. School welcomed all the participants and introduced Dr. Muneet. She then invited her to begin the session.

 

Dr. Muneet began the session by explaining the full form of MOHAN. She informed the audience that MOHAN is not someone’s name but an acronym. She explained the basic concepts of organ donation and transplantation with the help of a simple PowerPoint presentation. The following topics were explained in detail: 

• Organ donation and its need
• When and how does organ donation take place
• Organs that can be donated during life and after death
• The transplant waiting list in India
• Brain death
• Difference between brain death and coma
• Contraindications to organ donation
• Transplant Law
• Role of MOHAN Foundation
• Organ donation Myths and Facts
• Eye Donation

 

A short movie was also shown to the audience to give clarity on “Brain Death” and to enumerate the difference between coma and brain death. To engage the audience in the discussion, Dr. Muneet asked them “What organs can be donated in living donation? And “Where does India stand when 95% of deaths are cardiac deaths and only 5% deaths are brain deaths in India and when the family members of those 5% brain death cases, do not give their consent for organ donation. The participants interactive during the presentation and asked many questions during the session. To name a few:

• What is the reason for Tamil Nadu’s Organ Donation Rate being higher than that of India’s Organ Donation Rate?
• Why other states of India are not adopting the organ donation model of Tamil Nadu since it is a successful model.
• Does literacy rate of a state/country affect the number of organ donations?

 

Dr. Muneet also spoke about the importance of eye donation and explained the whole process of eye donation. She informed the participants that eye donation is the simplest form of donation that can be done even at home. She also explained the role of MOHAN Foundation in promoting organ donation in India.

 

At the end, Dr. Arti Sharma, Principal- SSLT Gujarat Sr. Sec. School gave the vote of thanks. She said the session was very fruitful and helped the participants to understand the concept of organ donation. She expressed her interest in collaborating with MOHAN Foundation for conducting such awareness sessions in future also.

 

Close to 50 participants attended the session.