On 8 and 9 June, 2022, an Organ Donation Ambassador training was conducted for 32 members of the Akhil Bhartiya Marwari Mahila  Samellan (ABMMS).  It was an online training.  The leader  of their Organ and Tissue donation project, Mrs Sushila Farmania ably assisted by Ms Madhu Dumrewal  got their members to sign up for the training.  

The volunteers were given an orientation to the Concepts of Organ and Tissue Donation as well as the basics of Body Donation. Myths and facts on Organ Donation were also discussed.  The trainers were Dr Hemal Kanvinde and Dr Muneet Kaur Sahi of MOHAN Foundation and Dr Yuvaraj Bhosale of BL Nair  Hospital Mumbai were the trainers.

Post the talks there was a discussion on causes of brain death, difficult procedures for body donation, the relevance of a donor registry and how to improve the understanding on organ donation among the public.

The next day started with a self introduction by the volunteers and  a  Q&A session with experts. Mrs Lalitha Raghuram, Country Director, Ms Jaya Jairam Project Director   of MOHAN Foundation and Mrs Mayuri Gadge , Senior transplant coordinator, Dr D Y Patil Medical College and Hospital were the experts.

Ms Mayuri started the interaction with a story of a donation and the challenges she faced to covert the case into a donor. She explained the social obligations and the stigma faced by the family from the community, after the donation was done.  The next discussion was on brain death and coma and the organ allocation policy, contraindications to  donation and the various training programs of MOHAN Foundation. Dr Shroff, Managing Trustee of MOHAN Foundation joined and welcomed the trainees asked them create awareness.

After this interaction Dr Muneet conducted a workshop on “Writing a Thank You Letter” to a donor family. She gave tips and the letters were read by the participants. A few had personal experience of organ failure/ transplant and donation and these were discussed.

The last session was on examples of Organ donation Awareness for the public. Dr Hemal explained in detail the various online and offline methods to create awareness.   Ms Farmania promised to conduct programs on a large scale during the Organ donation week August   as well as plan for another set of training for other members.

The training ended with a formal vote of thanks by Ms. Madhu Dumrewal.