On August 30, 2022, MOHAN Foundation was invited to conduct an awareness session on organ donation for the students pursuing Bachelors of Vocation in Healthcare Management and the faculty, Jesus & Mary College (JMC), New Delhi. Ms. Pallavi Kumar, Executive Director, MOHAN Foundation NCR, was the resource person and Ms. Simran Anand, Program Officer, MOHAN Foundation accompanied her.

Ms. Neerja Timothy, a final-year healthcare management student at JMC, took the initiative to contact Dr. Muneet Kaur Sahi, Program Manager, MOHAN Foundation NCR, via LinkedIn in order to set up an organ donation session for her institution.

Jesus and Mary College is a women-only college of the University of Delhi, established in the year 1919 and is located in Chanakyapuri Diplomatic Enclave in New Delhi. The college offers bachelor's degrees in Commerce, Arts, and Mathematics. The college offers honours degrees in Elementary Education, History, Sociology, Political Science, Vocational Studies, Hindi, English, Economics, Psychology, Mathematics, and Commerce. 

The session was attended by IT, retail and healthcare management students and by two of their teachers. All were well informed about the session by Ms. Neerja and were excited to learn about organ donation.

Ms. Pallavi was welcomed by the students and teachers. She began the session by asking participant’s understanding about organ donation. She then explained the basic concepts of organ donation and transplantation with the help of a PowerPoint presentation. The following topics were explained in detail: 

• Organ donation and its need in the society
• When and how does organ donation take place
• Organs that can be donated during life and after death
• Transplant waiting list in India
• Brain death
• Difference between brain death and coma
• Role of MOHAN Foundation
• Myths and facts about organ donation
• Eye donation

The importance of family consent in the process of organ donation was explained in detail. Participants also shared their views about the cause, and many of them shared their family’s experiences of organ donation.

Over all the session was very interactive where participants enthusiastically contributed to the discussion and asked many queries. To name a few: 

• What is the difference between coma and brain death?
• Brain death versus circulatory death: what is the difference?
• Is it the doctors or the judiciary that is the main reason why organ donation is not possible even when people are willing to donate?
• What if the city doesn’t have a panel of 4 doctors?

Close to 100 students participated in the session.