On August 28, 2021, an International Webinar on Organ Donation was organized by National and International Rotary Clubs. The organizing Ambassador clubs for the event were Rotary Club of Delhi Southwest, Rotary Club of Calcutta Charnock City, Rotary Club of Calcutta Mahanagar, Rotary Club of Delhi Elite, Rotary Club of Delhi Khubsurat and Rotary Friends in Kindness supported by Ambassador clubs from India and around the world including United Kingdom and Pakistan as well as Rotaract Clubs and Interact Clubs. From MOHAN foundation Ms. Pallavi Kumar, Executive Director was invited as an expert for the event.
The webinar was organized with the aim to bring together Rotarians from all over the world to join hands to educate the world population about organ donation and to motivate them to become organ donors. In India, Rotary has been working closely with NOTTO (National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization) to amplify the awareness regarding organ donation and to bring discussions on organ donation to the fore front, this webinar is such an effort to initiate a discussion on a on a global level. The session was joined by close to 60 clubs as support ambassadors.
The session was initiated by Rtn. Shreya Snehi, who introduced the webinar agenda. The opening remarks were delivered by Rtn. Sanjeev Verma, Webinar Chairman, he welcomed the Guests of honor for the webinar Immediate Past Rotary International Director Rtn. Dr. Bharat Pandya, District Governor Praveen Chatterjee, Immediate past District Governor Sanjeev Rai Mehra, District Governor Elite Ashok Kantaur and all the past District Governor’s and welcomed the attendees and the eminent speakers for the evening. The welcome address was delivered by Rtn. Kishan Goenka, Webinar Secretary and the session was reincarnation inaugurated by Rtn. Dr. Bharat Pandya.
Rtn. Dr. Siddhartha Chakraborty gave the first session of the day detailing the history of organ donation and transplant in India and the world, he also discussed concepts related to organ donation in circulatory death and brain death. Dr. Siddhartha was succeeded by Dr. Vasanthi Ramesh, Director, NOTTO. Dr. Ramesh talked about the awareness surrounding organ donation and the work done by NOTTO to augment she also talked about the complex relationship between donor and recipients.
This session was followed by the final session of the evening delivered by Ms. Pallavi Kumar, Executive Director, MOHAN Foundation. Ms. Pallavi Kumar discussed about the need for organ donation, the shortage of organs in India as well as the widening gap between the organs needed for transplant and the organs available. Ms. Pallavi also talked about the concepts related to organ donation, such as the eligibility to be a donor in circulatory death and Brain Death. She stressed upon the concept of brain death and threw light upon the procedure for eye donation. In her concluding remarks Ms. Pallavi detailed about the procedure to sign up as an organ donor and the importance of family discussion on the same. She concluded her session by sharing heartwarming stories of donors and their families and the importance of organ donation as a powerful gift to transform lives.
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The sessions were followed by a panel discussion on Organ donation and Transplantation. The session was concluded with testimonials of donor and recipients detailing their experience and encouraging the attendees to sign up to be an organ donor. The session was concluded by remarks from the guests of honor and the vote of thanks by Rtn. Sudip De, who thanked the speakers for the evening, the guests of honor, donors, recipients, and the attendees.
Close to 318 participants attended the session and the session was also live on Facebook and gathered 397 views.
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