Chandigarh: 16 September: In a first of its kind initiative, Regional Organ & Tissue Transplant Organization (ROTTO) PGIMER took a major step forward and collaborated with Directorate of School Education, Haryana to promote Organ Donation among students in 22 districts of Haryana under project ‘DASTAK’
To launch the project, an orientation session on Organ Donation was organized for District Education Officers and other senior functionaries of School Education Department at Shiksha Sadan, Sector 5, Panchkula today.
The Session was graced by the esteemed presence of Prof. (Dr.) Anil K. Gupta Dean (Research) cum Medical Superintendent, PGIMER & Prof. (Dr.) Vipin Koushal Additional Medical Superintendent-cum-Nodal Officer, ROTTO PGIMER , Mrs. Amrita Singh Additional Director Higher Education, Govt. of Haryana Sh Vijay Yadav Joint Director Higher Education, Govt. of Haryana & other senior functionaries from both the organizations.
Commending the social responsibility endeavour and endorsing the need for student engagement, Prof. (Dr.) Anil K. Gupta from PGIMER stated, “The act of donating one’s organ during one’s lifetime is the most appreciable deed one can do. With the waiting list getting longer, the gap between organ demand and availability widening at a fast pace and helpless patients dying every day while waiting for a transplant, it is vital that more and more of us pledge for organ donation.”
This novel initiative of engaging with students under Haryana School Education Department’s commendable initiative ‘Dastak’ will definitely help us garner enough traction for the cause with the students taking it forward to their family, friends and larger sections of the society and help saving precious lives.”
Deliberating on the initiatives being undertaken by ROTTO PGIMER to promote Organ Donation, Prof. (Dr.) Vipin Koushal stated “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 and socio-cultural views. Awareness among young generation is a first step towards that attitudinal change.
So tapping the opportunities like this one helps connecting with community and disseminating this information subtly by making it perceived as a ‘normal thing’,” added Dr. Koushal
Being fairly clued about the concept of Organ Donation Mrs. Amrita Singh said, “The basic ideology of is to promote compassion and humanitarian spirit in the younger generation as students are the change agents of the society. Organ Donation is an altruistic cause and we must contribute wholeheartedly towards creating an enabling environment for voluntary organ donation.”
Describing organ donation as the ‘gift of life’ Mrs. Amrita Singh made an impassioned appeal to the district education officers to motivate students to come forward and 'give back to the society by creating awareness on organ and pledging when they attain age of 18 years.” She also proposed to make this campaign a part of other student engagement activities as well.
Sh. Vijay Yadav Joint Director, School Education Department Haryana shared, “The intent of the campaign is to engage with students and educational fraternity in particular, aware and motivate them to pledge for organ donation. Going by the response, we will further broad-based the campaign through multiple social media platforms to maximize outreach about the cause.”
Commemorating the spirit, paintings were gifted to Mrs. Amrita Singh and other dignitaries as a token to reiterate the fact that ‘circle of life’ should not break. These paintings were made by school students on the theme of Organ Donation under ROTTO NORTH’s school engagement programme.