On September 29 & Oct 6, 2018, MOHAN Foundation, Delhi NCR conducted the “Angels of Change” training program with the volunteers from PHFI, Delhi. Nine students pursuing Masters in Public health (MPH) & PG Diploma in Public Health Management (PGDPHM) attended the session for basic introduction and initial orientation. Ms. Pallavi Kumar (Executive Director, MF) and Dr. Muneet Kaur Sahi (Program Manager, MF), took the sessions.
Day 1 of the training (Sept 29):Ms. Pallavi Kumar began the session by introducing the Foundation and its activities. She gave a brief description of Angels of Change program and what each of them is expected to do to complete the program. She then requested them to introduce themselves and share their reasons for undergoing the course.
A motivational video on organ donation was shown to the volunteers followed by explaining the basic concepts of organ donation with help of a PowerPoint presentation by Ms. Pallavi Kumar. The talk covered topics like what is organ donation, who can donate, what are the organs that can be donated, when organs can be donated, brain death, myths related to organ donation with their corresponding reality checks. To explain brain death, a short movie was shown and later it was described by Dr. Muneet in a simple and easily understood manner.
The talk ended with another video on organ donation. 2 activities were conducted with the volunteers after the presentation. The first activity was ‘Stories of Hope’ in which the volunteers were given a few organ donation stories. They were asked to pick one and share their views as asked in the questionnaire. In the second activity, the volunteers were asked to write a ‘Thank You Letter’ to an anonymous organ donor, imagining themselves to be recipients.
Post lunch an interactive session with the experts of Artemis Hospitals was organized for the volunteers. The panelists were Dr. Ramdip Ray (Addl Director Liver Transplant and GI Surgery), Dr. Reshma Tiwari (ICU Director Unit-1), Dr. Sumit Ray (Chairman ICU-Artemis Hospitals), Dr. Sameer Kaushal (Sr. Consultant -Ophthalmology), Dr. Seema Lachala (Sr. Consultant Critical Care Unit IV) and Dr. Vijay Joshi (Sr. Consultant – Nephrology). They all shared with the participants their experiences and the challenges faced during their practice. They emphasized on the way the news of brain death has to be given to the family as it’s a whole process only after which the transplant coordinators pitch in and take the family through the journey. Dr. Sameer Kaushal spoke about cornea donation and how healthy corneas are rejected due to different factors. One of the question raised was on the temperature of the potential brain-dead donor to which Dr. Reshma Tiwari effectively answered that till the organs are retrieved the body temperature is be managed and stabilized. This is the reason why the body feels warm.
The volunteers had various questions regarding brain death, Transplant Coordination and processes involved in it which were answered effectively by the experts. Mrs. Neha Kataria, a family member of a liver recipient at Artemis Hospitals was also invited for the session. She shared her journey with the volunteers and helped them understand the dynamics of the different families at the time of decision-making. It was indeed a very hands-on and effective learning experience for the volunteers.
Day 2 of the training (Oct 6): Dr. Muneet gave the participants a small brief on various government and non-governmental organisations working in the field of organ donation, national body (NOTTO), various state registries, brain death committee and its members and the process of signing up and donor card.
Post that, each of the volunteers presented their presentation on organ donation. The presentations were looked at critically. Feedback was given on the basis of content & organization of the presentation, validity & accuracy of the information given in each slide and the overall presentation of the volunteer. Tips on how they could connect with their audience, how they could keep the length of the talk just right and how they could make their talk more interesting were also discussed. Post their presentations and considering the above points, the volunteers were given suggestions how they could improve upon the content and way of presentation. They were asked to send their presentations incorporating the inputs given.
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