MOHAN Foundation was invited by National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) for an awareness program on Organ Donation. It was for the staff and was conducted on 14^th and 15^th August 2018 at their campus in Pallikarnai, Chennai. Mr. T. S. Siva Shankar, Helpline Executive was deputed for the session on 14^th August and Mrs. Shanthi Pandian, Angel of Change conducted the session on 15^th August 2018.

Day 1 (14^th August 2018):

Mr. Siva Shankar was introduced by Mr. Vedachalam. N, Senior Scientist to the gathering, and Mr. Siva Shankar started the session with giving the statistics of the patients waiting for an organ on the Government waitlist. He continued with concepts of Organ Donation.

He explained in detail the need for organ donation and organs that can be donated. Further he explained the different stages of organ donation (living, natural death and brain death), Brain Death and its causes, Transplant Law and the Government Authority of Tamil Nadu (TRANSTAN) who allocates the organs, and at last ended the session with use of the donor card. The session went on for an hour.

The questions asked were:

1. Do the organs reach to correct person in the waitlist?
2. Can donor registration be done in Government as well as with NGO?
3. Why organs are not taken after Natural Death?

The session ended with a vote of thanks by Vasanth Kumar Jana, Scientist F.

Day 2: (15^th August 2018)

Mrs. Shanthi Pandian set up an information desk in the NIOT campus with all brochures, donor cards, registration forms and green ribbons. The stall was set up so that everyone would register on this auspicious day of Independence. Every family member of the staff went to the stall. Mrs. Shanthi Pandian explained and cleared all the doubts that were asked. The stall was set up from 9 AM to 11 AM. She got 25 donor registrations in total.

MOHAN Foundation thanks National Institute of Ocean Technology for supporting this noble cause.