MOHAN Foundation’s team was invited once again by “Akshay Pratishthan” to conduct an awareness session with a fresh batch of interns of BSW and MSW course from IGNOU School of social work on 31^st October 2012. This session was conducted at the end of the orientation programme organized for these interns.

Ms. Manisha Gupta, Programme Manager explained the concepts of organ donation, brain death, and age criteria for donating organs. She also briefed the group on steps to be followed prior to eye donation which can happen during natural death as well. Some press clippings on recent deceased donations that happened in Delhi-NCR region was also shared with the group. This gave them a feel of current happenings within their city and insight into the fact that organ donation though a slow process, does happen.  Legal aspects and significance of the tests conducted to establish brain death was also discussed which helped them overcome their doubts on the difference between brain death and coma. About 35 students attended the session and 25 of them pledged their organs right away.

Akshay Pratishthan is also a vocational training centre for a variety of courses. A small batch of students undergoing Elementary Education Training (teachers training course for Grade I to Grade V) were also interested to know about the subject. On request from Ms. Vaidehi Subramani, Social Worker at the school, another session was taken for this group on the same day.

A group of 25 people were present. The concept of brain death and organ donation was totally new to them and hardly anybody had heard of anything except eye donation until before the session. Participants had lot of queries about the issues around organ donation, illegal trafficking of kidneys which they had seen through Bollywood movies, possibility of multiple donations of the same organ, how can one ensure that corrupt activities do not happen within hospitals when it comes to organ donation etc. The entire group was very curious to discuss specific examples from within their life. One of them even shared that her uncle who was possibly brain dead few months ago, was kept on ventilator for 5 days by the attending doctors who kept on saying that there is no chance of recovery for him and never openly discussed what she had learned from today’s session. The importance of MOHAN Foundation and how as external facilitators, its team can play a neutral role within hospital settings; was discussed with the participants at this juncture.

About 5 participants from the second session took organ donor cards and others wanted some time to think and discuss within their families before pledging their organs

The toll free helpline numbers for eye donation, whole body donation and organ donation shared at the end of both the sessions were noted by most of the participants.

About Akshay Pratishthan: It was set up as a unique "experiment" in inclusion and inclusive education in the year 1998. Apart from education, Akshay Pratishthan is also a rehabilitation centre supporting about 800 children and is well known for its vocational training, medical care and employment opportunities.