Organ Donation Ambassador program of MOHAN Foundation trains lay people to speak about the Organ Donation in the community. The 21st batch of Ambassador’s module 2 training was conducted  on Satd Jan 28, 2023 as an online interaction.  Dr Hemal Kanvinde and Ms Ishwarya Thygarajan were the trainers. 

Nine ambassadors were trained on the day. There were 4 sessions

1. Self introduction

2. Interaction with experts (Dr Balaji Kirushnan, Dr Vaishaly Bharambe, Dr Sunil Shroff, Dr Hemal Kanvinde, Ms Jaya Jairam, Mr Ananth Archarya and Ms Priti Jain)

3. Gratitude communication

4. Modes of communication 

Dr. Hemal Kanvinde started the training with a welcome and explanation of the process of the training. The 9 ambassadors introduced themselves. It was a mix of students, young professional and senior citizens.  In the interactions with the experts the trainees asked many questions:

1. To stop the incidence of lifestyle diseases, can we work to curb the availability of junk food and drinks.
2. How does a doctor decide to give a liver to an alcoholic patient – can we be sure that he will not revert back.
3. How can we improve the rate of cornea donation  and should  we first concentrate of this
4. In villages there are still many myths and how can this be addressed?
5. What sort of research can be done in organ donation?
6. Why is the number of living donation so high in India when compared with other countries?

All queries were answered by the experts.

Participant Ms Jhansi shared a story of a donation by a young boy in Hyderabad and how his parents were discriminated by the village community  such that the donor’s mother committed suicide.  She still feels guilty about counselling for donation to the family.

Ms Priti Jain narrated a donor coordination from a family with mass casualty. She explained that identifying a the key decision maker in the family will help in getting a consent for organ donation

Mr Ananth gave a brief glimpse of his life prior and post his kidney transplant. His story inspired the participants to try to save lives by promoting organ donation.

Dr Vaishly highlighted how body donation can also save live.

The next session was the Gratitude Communication Workshop. Ms Ishwarya mentored the participants to write a letter to a donor family. She gave tips on what points to covered. The participants read out their letter of gratitude, with many of them thanking the family and promising to take care of the gift of life. This was a life changing experience for the trainees.

The next session was on Modes of Communication by Dr Hemal Kanvinde. She spoke of the ways to reach out in the community and illustrated it with a presentation. One to one interactions, speeches in auditoriums, social media campaigns, art and other competitions, participation in rallies and marathons and talks by experts were some of the examples that were given to the participants.

In the last session some of the them gave a feedback about how they liked the interactions and the Gratitude letter session. The training ended with a Vote of Thanks by Dr. Hemal.