|
Online Awareness Session on Organ Donation conducted for the Students, Parents and Faculty of Khalsa Model Senior Secondary School, Dunlop, Kolkata |
|
On December 5, 2020, MOHAN Foundation was invited to conduct an online awareness session on organ donation for the students, parents and faculty of Khalsa Model Senior Secondary School (KMSSS), Dunlop, Kolkata. The session was organized by Mr. Pushpinder Singh, Assistant Divisional Manager, Tata Hitachi, Kolkata. Dr. Muneet Kaur Sahi, Programme Manager, MOHAN Foundation (Delhi-NCR), was the resource person.
Mr. Pushpinder Singh has a long association with MOHAN Foundation. He is quite passionate about the cause of organ donation. He was very enthralled by the first awareness session on organ donation that he had organized in association with MOHAN Foundation in August 2017 for the employees of Honda Cars India Ltd, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh. Since then, he has become an active volunteer to increase public awareness of organ donation. In the past, Mr. Pushpinder had successfully organised 4 sessions in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh & Rajasthan in association with MOHAN Foundation.
Khalsa Model Senior Secondary School situated at Dunlop, Kolkata was established in the year 1969 by the Gurdwara Sikh Sangat, Dunlop, Kolkata. Till today, the school is managed and administered by the Gurdwara Committee. It is affiliated to the CBSE Delhi and has about 2500 students from Classes I to XII.
At the beginning of the session, Ms. Sayoni Sengupta, Senior Faculty, KMSSS welcomed all the participants and invited Dr. Muneet to begin the session. Dr. Muneet explained to the participants that organ donation is a gift of life as one person can save 8 lives by donating his/her organs. She said organ donation is not just altruism, it has become a need of the hour as 10 patients die every day while on the waiting list for organs and every 10 minutes, a new name is added to the waiting list. The rate of organ donation in India is only 0.8 per million population. India is still far away from other countries like Spain, USA, UK and other European countries who are way ahead when it comes to organ donation. While Spain is leading the cause of organ donation with the highest rate of organ donation (per million population).
She explained the basic concepts of organ donation and transplantation with the help of a simple PowerPoint presentation. The following topics were explained in detail:
While on the subject of brain death, a short movie was shown to give clarity on the subject and to enumerate the difference between coma and brain death. The topics of Brain Death Certification and Brain Death Committee in the hospitals were also explained.
The participants were very excited during the presentation and contributed to the discussion. They asked many queries. To name a few:
Dr. Muneet explained the importance of eye donation and the whole process of eye donation. She also explained how one could pledge to be an organ donor. She encouraged the students especially of classes 9 to 12 to take forward the cause of organ donation as they are the real changemakers.
At the end of the session, Ms. Gurmeet Kaur, Principal, KMSSS thanked Dr. Muneet and said that the session was very informative. It was presented in such a simple and clear manner that even students of class 6 understood the meaning of organ donation and why it is important. She also informed with joy that a planter had been put aside in the name of “Dr. Muneet Kaur Sahi” in the school premises as a token of appreciation and invited her to visit KMSSS.
Feedback from a few students:
Close to 70 participants attended the session. |
|