On July 26, 2024, the MOHAN Foundation (MF) conducted a virtual organ donation awareness session for employees of SMS Group and Tata Motors Finance. Organized by the Dr. Reddy Foundation for Health Education (DRFHE), this session was part of a series planned for the week for their corporate social responsibility (CSR) partners during Organ Donation Month as part of the "Angdaan Jan Jagrukta Abhiyaan," an initiative by the National Organ & Tissue Transplantation Organization (NOTTO), Ministry of Health, Government of India. Dr. Bhanu Chandra, Manager of Operations and Senior Transplant Coordinator at MOHAN Foundation, Hyderabad, served as the resource person.
Dr. Bhanu was welcomed by Mr. Kiran Reddy T, Awareness for Life (AFL) Partner at DRFHE. He began the session by explaining the basic concepts of donation: blood donation, corneal donation, body donation, and organ donation. He then used a PowerPoint presentation to elaborate on the concepts of organ donation and transplantation. The following aspects of organ donation were covered:
• Organ donation and the overview of the need for organ donation
• Who can be an organ donor
• Definition of death: natural or cardiac death and brain death
• Brain death and how to assess brain death
• Organs and tissues that can be donated after brain death
• Tissues that can be donated after natural death and the necessary conditions
• The difference between coma and brain death
• Basic concepts of eye donation and body donation
• Legal and ethical implications of organ donation
• Provisions of the Transplantation of Human Organs Act of 1994
• Role of MOHAN Foundation in promoting organ donation
Dr. Bhanu encouraged the audience to make an organ donation pledge and emphasized the importance of public awareness.
Close to 41 participants attended the online awareness session.