On January 28, 2019, MOHAN Foundation conducted an awareness talk on organ donation at Amity School of Communication (ASCO), Amity University, Noida. It was organised by Col Umang Kohli who has taken a sabbatical of 2 years from the Indian Army to pursue Masters in Communications from Amity School of Communication.

The session had two components: a radio show and an awareness session to explain the concepts of organ donation. The guest for the radio show was Ms. Pallai Sood and Dr. Pallavi Rekhi for the talk on organ donation. The radio interview was conducted at Radio Amity, ASCO and the talk was conducted at ASCO studio.

In the radio interview, Ms. Pallavi Sood was asked questions about the Foundation, its mission and objectives. Questions about eye donation, organ donation, myths and current statistics of organ donation in India were also addressed. The interview ended with the hosts enquiring about the mantra of the Foundation that keeps the people associated with it to keep working for the cause.

Dr. Rekhi began the session by asking a few introductory questions on organ donation and the organ donor card, to understand the participant’s knowledge about the said subject. Out of all the participants only 4 or 5 people had heard about organ donation. One of the participants (a professor) shared her experience of eye donation of her father upon his death. Post the donation, the rest of the family signed up for eye donation. She also shared that she always carries her donor card in her wallet.

Dr. Rekhi in her session spoke about the current statistics of organ donation in comparison to the other countries. She touched upon the need for organ donation in our country, where a patient is diagnosed with organ failure every single day. She also explained the reasons as to why other European countries have much higher ODRs (Organ Donation Rate) as compared to India. She explained to the students the difference between Opt-in and Opt-out systems, consent systems followed by different countries in the world.

Clarification about different organs and the time span of their removal from the deceased body was also given. She also made sure that the participants were well acquainted with different types of hospitals and the services offered by them as not all hospitals are registered to do organ transplantation. She focused on the Transplant Law of India and its importance with regard to transplant activities. The condition of brain stem death was explained with the help of a video and common causes of brain death were also enumerated. The difference between coma and brain-death were also elaborated with the help of examples and videos. Myths were discussed with the participants and queries were addressed namely:

• How to control diseases which cause a need for organ transplant?
• What is the allocation system of organs followed by the Army for its personnel?
• One cornea can be shared with how many people?

Close to 43 participants attended the session and 43 forms (Form 7) were picked up.