ROTTO PGI Promotes Organ Donation at CII’s Agro Tech

By Tricitynews Reporter

Chandigarh 22^nd November:- As a build up to the Indian Organ Donation Day being observed on 27^th November, 2016, ROTTO launched a week long activity campaign with an  awareness stall at CII’s mega event Agro Tech 2016 at Parade Grounds, Chandigarh.

The camp organised with an intent to reach out to the corporate sector to  sensitize them about the cause, concluded on a positive note with 178 pledging for organ donation and over a thousand including many farmers from far and wide places, counselled about the cause. Adding to this, a few corporates evinced interest to organize awareness sessions in their respective companies.    

But most encouraging was to see some getting themselves registered as volunteers to promote the cause, most of them being those who had actually seen their near ones suffering from end stage organ failures. Youngest of them being 17 year old Ritika, who had come to Agro Tech along with her father, a patient suffering from debilitating kidney disease, undergoing dialysis since two years and waitlisted for transplantation at PGI. She said that she would like to help in disseminating awareness about the cause so that more people come forward to give consent for cadaver donation. May be we also turn lucky and her father gets a kidney and is freed from this daily trauma of dialysis and hospitalisation.

To reach out to maximum number of people, ROTTO volunteers made sure to visit all the stalls and discuss about the concept with those present at the showcase. The queries posed by the exhibitors as well as visitors were also addressed at the camp by the transplant coordinators from ROTTO present during the event.  

Complementing CII for their CSR orientation and sensitization towards the cause, Dr Vipin Koushal, Nodal Officer, ROTTO PGI said that considering the fact that organ donation is not less because there are no potential donors but because the potential donors do not convert into actual donors due to the lack of knowledge, awareness and socio-cultural views, ROTTO PGIMER has been proactively tapping multiple windows of opportunities to embed awareness about organ donation in public conscience. The awareness stall at CII’s Agro Tech was a step in this direction.

Dr Vipin Koushal added that to build synergy for the cause, we would like to engage with maximum number through this week long campaign by organizing community connect camps with NGOs, infotainment sessions in educational institutions,  awareness camps at OPDs, rallies, talks on AIR and Doordarshan and proactive engagement with media.