MOHAN Foundation, Nagpur was invited by Dr. Vikas Amte of Anandwan in Warora, Chandrapur District of Maharashtra on 16th May 2019 to give a talk on organ donation and transplantation.

Anandwan, the ‘forest of happiness’ is located at around 5 kilometers from Warora in Chandrapur District in the state of Maharashtra. It is an ashram and community rehabilitation center which was mainly catered to leprosy patients. Founded in 1952 by noted social activist Baba Amte, Anandwan today has two hospitals, one colleg,e an orphanage, a school for blind and a technical wing. Dr. Vikas Amte, Baba Amte’s elder son is the chief functionary at Anandwan. The 52^nd Shram Sanskar Chhavani, which was recently organized with the aim of helping the youth of the nation realize the importance of social work.

Dr. Ravi Wankhede, Director of MOHAN Foundation Nagpur delivered a talk on organ donation. His talk covered organ, tissue and body donation. He mentioned how the mankind is endowed with the ability to serve their fellow beings both while living and after death. However, despite the great progress made by the country, there is a serious lack of blood in blood banks, not enough corneas are available in the eye banks and also huge requirement for life saving organs such as kidneys, liver, heart, etc. He explained though organs can be donated by living donors, what is more relevant is that several organs and tissues can be donated after brain death as well. He elaborated on brain death and added how brain dead individuals can help save the lives of at least 8 other people besides donating tissues such as a pair of eyes and skin. While remarking that Nagpur is fortunate to have a skin bank, he also emphasized that eyes and skin can be donated after natural death as well as brain death.

He explained in details the following topics:

• Types of donations and who can be a donor.
• The status of organ donation in India, its requirement and donation rates
• Myths surrounding organ donation
• Difference between natural death and brain death
• Age factor in organ donation
• Importance of donor cards
• Pledging organs and registering in MOHAN Foundation’s website
• Using MOHAN Foundation’s website and helpline number

Few questions asked by the participants:

• Where is the MOHAN Foundation office in Nagpur?
• What would be the life span after a kidney transplant?
• Whom to contact for eye donation?

All the questions were answered and most of the participants picked up pamphlets and consent forms which would later be submitted by the office bearers to the MOHAN Foundation. Around 5 participants signed up and collected donor cards of the 500 that were present. At the end of the session they expressed their interest in doing more programs with MOHAN Foundation in the future.