The focus of Witty
International School, Pawan Baug, has always been to provide education for life and
empower students to lead a life that is demonstrative of school ethos. It
promotes environment that helps an individual grow up to be as socially
responsible, spiritually inclined, intellectually elevated and extremely
empathetic towards peoples’ concerns. Since the inception, the school has
actively participated and partnered in various community projects. This time
too, Witty International School conducted and awareness session on Organ
Donation organized by Mohan Foundation. The speaker for the day was Ms Jaya
Jayaram.
Ms Jaya had been
working in the corporate sector for 18 years and has subsequently joined the
social development sector, working for the cause of Organ donation with MOHAN
Foundation. Having been a kidney recipient herself, she passionately believes
in furthering the cause. She dreams of an India where the waiting list of
people hoping to receive organs is virtually non-existent and where it is not
so hard for people to get second chances at living lives with their loved ones.
She hopes to enable support groups where first hand experiences and information
could be exchanged, thereby helping people to cope better with the agonies and
anxieties associated with organ failure.
Through the session the students were made to be aware
that more than half a million Indians are estimated to be in dire need of an
organ transplant-kidney, liver, heart, pancreas and so on. Yet, less than a
thousand transplants are performed each year. The rest usually die waiting for
an organ as there aren't enough donors.
They were further informed that one person’s decision
to donate his organs after his death could save upto 8 lives (8 organs can be
harvested from a brain dead person and transplanted in 8 different people). But
the lack of awareness, various myths, and an absence of a national registry had
led to the dismal number of people signing up for Organ Donation. Despite India
being the world's second most populous country, it has a deceased donation rate
of just 0.26 per million population.
“Instead of simply pledging to become
an organ donor, we want to make sure that the youth understands why this is a
very important issue. We want them to know why they need to be aware and how
they can help. Our seminar aims at awareness and we hope to reach out to as
many people as possible,” said Ms Jaya Jayaram.
The children were quite exuberant and Ms Jaya answered
all the queries asked by the students that led to the session being more
interesting and participative. The children were surprised to hear another type
of death being brain death. They found it quite interesting to know that only a
brain dead person is eligible to donate organs. Through the session they also
got better understanding on which are the parts of the body that can be donated
in brain death and cardiac death.
The Principal Mr Bijo Kurian addressed, “The youth of this country are socially conscious and
aware, and more often than not, they are positive about organ donation as they
read about such cases in the newspaper or on social media. Often, it’s a matter
of just introducing them to the idea of organ donation 
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