On 14th November 2017, MOHAN Foundation was invited by South Asian Medical Students Association (SAMSA) to be part of their panelists on a discussion related on Organ Donation.
The panel discussion was part of an inaugural event kicking off DONOR CUP – An inter-collegiate organ donation awareness drive competition over a period of 6 months. Participants of DONOR CUP would be medical undergraduates (SAMSA/NON SAMSA members) and would be expanded to other non-medical colleges /universities in due course.
The core objective of the DONOR CUP is to highlight and raise awareness about organ donation amongst the medical fraternity of Bengal, discuss contentious issues like brain death declaration, THOA Act, grief counselling teams, address socio-religious barriers.
The event featured reputed speakers (names enlisted below), a street play within the campus, skits and a shadow act, with the central theme being organ donation & organ trafficking.
The dignitaries who spoke at the event were Dr. Arpita Roy Chowdhury, ROTTO in charge- Kolkata, Chief guest and keynote address speaker, Dr. Madhumita Dobe, Dean, All India Institue of Hygiene & Public Health (Organ Donation: Perceptions and Practices, Miles to Go), Swami Suparananda Maharaj, Ramkrishna Mission (Socio religious barriers to donation), Dr. Samir Banerjee, HOD(Ophthalmology) NRSMCH (Cornea retrieval program, hits and misses), Dr. Sugata Dasgupta , CCU Incharge , RGKMCH (Brain Death declaration and grief counselling), Dr. Sanghamitra Ghosh ,Secretary, IPHA ( Spreading awareness at grass root level, tackling trafficking and exploitation) and Dr. Dipankar Sircar, Nephrologist, SSKM (Legalities of Donation).
Towards the end of the event, a panel discussion related to organ donation was organized. The panel consisted of Dr. Sugata Dasgupta, CCU Incharge, RGKMCH, Dr. Sanghamitra Ghosh, Secretary, IPHA, Dr. Dipankar Sircar, Nephrologist, SSKM, Dr. Ramanuj Mukherjee, Surgeon, RGKMCH, Ms. Jaya Jairam and Mr. Amit Shenoy from MOHAN Foundation Mumbai.
The panel discussion revolved around a survey conducted by SAMSA through their website prior to the event to gauge the awareness among the students pertaining to organ donation. The discussion also included strategies on how a NGO like SAMSA should go about this initiative to get maximum no. of donors, early hurdles faced by MOHAN Foundation and how they overcame them, how can one propagate the message to the grass root level, at villages, the issue of organ trafficking, successful case studies, stories, focusing on a specific city or community.
We sincerely thank the organizers of the event, Dr. Rishav Mukherjee and his team at SAMSA for inviting us to Kolkata to be part of the panel discussion and wish them all success in their efforts towards their initiative pertaining to organ donation awareness in Kolkata.
-ACT,-2011.gif){kind=spacer}
