The second module of the organ donation ambassadors programme consisting of interactions with experts, understanding communication and practices of presentations was conducted virtually on the 20th of February 2021 for the second batch. The first batch of ambassadors successfully underwent their training on the 23rd of January 2021.
Participants included students from MMM College of Health Sciences, Life Members of MOHAN Foundation and a few others passionate about the cause from various parts of the country.
Introductions were followed by feedback for Module 1 for all 16 participants. The experts present to answer queries were Dr. Sunil Shroff, Managing Trustee, MOHAN Foundation, Dr. Rajeevalochana Parthasarathy of Madras Medical Mission, Ms. Jaya Jairam, Ms. Kavitha Aneesh, Ms. Ishwarya Thyagarajan and Dr. Hemal Kanvinde of MOHAN Foundation. The discussions were on the need for donation, Jaya’s story of accepting a donation from her mother, need for counselling and understanding brain death. A participant shared his brother’s experience of donating an organ to his daughter, which deeply impacted the participants.
Ms. Ishwarya Thyagarajan led the exercise on Gratitude and Communication and the letters written by the participants during this session were read out. The main theme of the letters was around a second chance at life, and the donor being a God-like figure to the recipients. It helped the participants understand altruism.
The modes of communication were explained by Dr. Hemal Kanvinde through an illustrative presentation. The participants understood the different ways that they can use to create awareness.
In the next session, the students were put in breakout rooms and were asked to make presentations of 3-4 slides on select topics on organ donation. Every room had a MOHAN Foundation staff to guide them. After the session, the leader of the team presented their work and guided the participants to improve their PPT. All participants gained some confidence in speaking with others about organ donation. A poll was conducted to know most comfortable way of creating awareness and most participants chose to do awareness talks.
The training ended with feedback being shared and participants planning awareness activities they would conduct.