ON the occasion of Organ Donation Week that kicked off on Monday (20), BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha has launched a new educational video about organ donation and the importance of having a conversation with the family about one’s wish to donate organs.
Organ Donation Week is an annual campaign held in the month of September which aims to encourage people to take part in the national organ donor register and to share their decision with their families. This year, the focus us the ‘Leave Them Certain’ campaign which aims to motivate people to talk to their loved ones about organ donation, especially highlighting that families are always involved whenever one is planning about organ donation.
BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha, an international community-based Hindu organisation affiliated to the United Nations, has been working on raising awareness about organ donation for several years now. More recently, it has come up with a series of short videos stressing on the need for Asians to consider organ donation, how Hinduism supports this and the importance of registering online and having the conversation with one’s loved ones.
The video also highlights the current problem of shortage of Asian donors and addresses the misconceptions about organ donation and the Hindu faith, emphasising that organ donation is a form of ‘daan’ (donation) or ‘seva’ (service) that Hindu scriptures encourage devotees to offer. It also speaks about the importance of speaking to family members and friends about organ donation so that people can make informed and fact-based decisions.
Dr Neil Soneji, a lead volunteer at BAPS, said, “Talking with your family about organ donation after death can be a sensitive subject. But this video emphasises why it is so important that we have that conversation, because the family’s consent is always needed for donation to take place, even with the new changes to the law, and even if the patient has registered to be an organ donor. Have the Conversation. Leave them Certain!”
To learn more about organ donation week, please click here.
BAPS, under the spiritual leadership of His Holiness Mahant Swami Maharaj, strives to build a righteous, peaceful and harmonious community which is spiritually elevated and free of addictions and violence.
A protestor is detained by the police during a demonstration against the proposed site of the new Chinese Embassy, outside Royal Mint Court, in London. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso. 
