On November 1, 2020, MOHAN Foundation in association with Akhil Bhartiya Marwadi Mahila Sammelan (ABMMS), Maharashtra organized a webinar titled, A Boon to Humanity-Organ Donation, as part of the ongoing series of webinars called Synchrony Dialogues with MOHAN Foundation. The webinar was moderated by Dr. Rajkumari Jain, Head of Eye & Organ Donation Unit, Akhil Bhartiya Marwadi Mahila Sammelan, Parola, Maharashtra and Ms. Jaya Jairam, Project Manager, MOHAN Foundation, Mumbai.

Dr. Sunil Shroff, Managing Trustee, MOHAN Foundation, Ms. Sharda Lokhatia, National President-ABMMS, Maharashtra, Ms. Rekha Lokhatia, National Secretary- ABMMS, Maharashtra, Ms. Saroj Prasari, Provincial President-ABMMS, Maharashtra and Ms. Sandhya Agarwal, National Head of Eye, Blood & Organ Donation Unit, ABMMS, Maharashtra were the speakers of the webinar.

At the beginning, Dr. Rajkumari Jain welcomed all the participants and said organ donation was an important achievement of this century. Organ donation is a boon to humanity, and it is the topic of today’s webinar. She introduced Dr. Sunil Shroff and informed the audience that Karamveer Dr. Shroff had performed 11,700 transplants through organ donation, and he has been the true ambassador of organ donation in India since 1997. ABMMS, Maharashtra salute him for his outstanding contribution towards promoting organ donation in India. Dr. Rajkumari also informed the participants about the biggest achievements of ABMMS, Maharashtra. She informed since 2016, 126 corneal donation, 60 organ donation and 11 whole body donations were facilitated by ABMMS, Maharashtra.                                                                                                                                

Ms. Jaya Jairam then invited Ms. Sharda Lokhatia to present her views on organ donation in India and to inaugurate MOHAN Foundation’s Hindi website which was recently constructed especially for Hindi speaking populace of India so that the concept of organ donation can be easily understood. She informed the audience that on August 31, 2019, ABMMS, Maharashtra in collaboration with MOHAN Foundation had organized rallies on organ donation in 18 states of India that was recorded in India & Asia Book of Record. All the workers of ABMMS who had participated in the rallies received certificates from MOHAN Foundation. She said it was really a matter of pride for all when Dr. Shroff appeared in the Karamveer episode of Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC).

Dr. Rajkumari invited Dr. Shroff to throw some light on the importance of organ donation in India. Dr. Shroff said that MOHAN Foundation helpline had been receiving continuous calls since the Karamveer episode of KBC was aired. So far, it had received more than 5000 calls enquiring about organ and body donation. Since most of the calls were in Hindi, Foundation felt the need to construct a Hindi website especially for the Hindi speaking belt of India. Dr. Shroff then explained the following topics with the help of a simple PowerPoint Presentation:

• History of MOHAN Foundation
• Activities conducted by MOHAN Foundation in 9 states of India
• History of organ donation
• Why is it important to think about organ donation? Why it has become the need of hour?
• Kidney disease is like silent tsunami in India. Nobody talks about it. Approx. 2 Lakh people die due to kidney failure in India.
• Diabetes and high blood pressure are the most common cause of kidney diseases in India.
• India requires approx. 5 lakhs organs according to the waiting list for organ transplant, but only 14,000 transplants are performed in a year.
• Which organs can be donated in living donation?
• Which organs can be donated after circulatory and brain death?
• What is brain death?
• Importance of family consent for organ donation
• Eye Donation
• Timeframe for organ donation after brain death
• Challenges in transportation for organ donation
• Whole body donation
• Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act, 1994
• Launch of donor card, police training and training programmes on Transplant Coordination by MOHAN Foundation

At the end of the webinar, Ms. Sandhya Agarwal gave vote of thanks. She said that the webinar was very informative and thought provoking and ABMMS, Maharashtra was interested in collaborating with MOHAN Foundation to promote organ donation.

The webinar had 431 views on Facebook and 296 views on YouTube.