On April 22, 2022, an awareness session was held  for the students from the Social Work Department, Soka Ikeda College of Arts and Science, Chennai. Around 68 students and a few faculty members actively participated in the session. Dr Hemal Kanvinde, Quality Assurance Officer and Ms Preetha Baskar, Project Executive from MOHAN Foundation walked through the session.

The session started out with a video explaining the gift of life and the importance of Organ Donation. To create interest in the topic, Ms Preetha Baskar commenced the session with questions about blood donation. She detailed the concepts, laws, why, when and how organ donation can be done. Activities carried out by MOHAN Foundation were explained to the students. A life changing story of a hand transplant recipient and a story of a small girl who gave saved a boy’s life were narrated. A film explainng brain death was played.  Discussion after this session were about post donation  whether the body is returned, how does one do bone marrow donation and whether all organs can be donated. 

Dr Hemal Kanvinde engaged the students by talking about the recipient counseling with a story narration. This story explained how a Chronic Kidney Patient (CKD) suffered from dialysis, food restriction, financial stress and mental stress and how she came out of that dark cave by the gift of life - a life-saving organ.

A kidney transplant recipient video was screened. This recipient expressed the struggles that she had gone through as a dialysis patient and her joy when she received a cadaver organ. This video really moved the students.

Dr Hemal Kanvinde gave an introduction about the courses offered by MOHAN Foundation. Followed by this, Ms Dhanalakshmi Rajendran, Head of Social Work Department gave a small talk on how one of her family members suffered from an organ failure and added the importance to the role of Medical Social Worker / Transplant Coordinator. About 40 students pledged for organ donation took up the donor cards. One of the faculty took the donor card and encouraged the students to support the cause.

MOHAN Foundation thanks Dr Meena Murugesan, Principal and Ms Dhanalakshmi Rajendran, Head of the Social Work Department for their support and coordination.