On July 9, 2014 a training session on Organ Donation was conducted by the MOHAN Foundation, in Tagore International School, New Delhi as a pilot venture of the ‘Peer Educators’ initiative of the Foundation. The event saw Ms Pallavi Kumar Executive Director, Mohan Foundation, Delhi NCR, and Dr Muneet Sahi, Transplant Coordinator Mohan Foundation, addressing a select batch of students from 9th to 11th grade about the concept of organ donation and its importance as a social cause.

Ms Pallavi began the session by quizzing the students for the general information they had up till then about organ donation. The students came up with answers which were more or less relevant but lacking in detail. Then she went on to introduce the cause with the help of a powerpoint presentation and gradually proceeded to explain the types of donations – live and deceased, the various conditions that enable live donations and the precursors for deceased donations. She clarified in detail the concept of brain death with the help of a short movie. Owing to the fact that brain death has always been comprehended as a rather confusing medical condition, she urged the children to paraphrase their understanding of the concept in their own words. At this juncture she was also helped by Dr Muneet who explained the concept in medical terms and clarified the doubts and questions that rose about the same. Following this, the legislation (THO Act) that surround organ donation was also explained but on simpler terms as general awareness and understanding for the cause was the basic aim behind conducting this session.

There was an active participation from the students throughout the session. There was a steady flow of questions and doubts right from the beginning. These questions turned out to be both informative and thought provoking to everyone in attendance. One such question was that could a visually impaired person donate his corneas. Dr Muneet replied that even a person who has lost his/her sight due to retinal or optic-nerve related disease can donate eyes, provided the cornea is clear or unclouded.

The importance of this session lies in the fact that the Foundation, shall be taking it up as a first step towards its pilot venture of spreading awareness among school students called ‘Peer Educators’ for organ donation. This concept percolates from the idea that educating a batch of students shall result in the education of batch mates, parents, neighbors and other people they are bound to come in contact with. This idea has been gradually taking form and the organization looks forward to extensively train students for promoting this cause and assist them in delivering and conducting promotional activities in corporate set ups and other similar locations in the future.

The event ended with Ms. Pallavi and Dr Muneet receiving much appreciation and gratitude from Ms Shivanee Sen, Project Coordinator, Tagore International School and request for another session in the following week in order to verify if the students have gained the knowledge and understanding that they are expected to have gained to take up their roles as ‘Peer Educators’.