Surat: This Ganesh Chaturthi, city-based NGO Donate Life has joined hands with the Vaastav Group to set up a specially designed Ganesh mandap near Bejanwala Complex on Rander Road, using the festival as a platform to spread awareness about organ donation and convey the message, “Organ Donation, Gift of Life.”The initiative seeks to highlight that the festival of Lord Ganesh is not only an occasion of devotion but also an opportunity to promote messages of humanity, compassion and positive social change.Drawing on the traditional belief that Lord Ganesha underwent the first organ transplant, the organisers said the festival provides a particularly meaningful setting to encourage people to pledge their organs and support the cause of donation.The mandap, which is open to the public, has been designed to ensure that the thousands of devotees who visit for darshan are also exposed to clear and impactful information about organ donation. Posters, real-life stories and motivational messages explain how organs donated after death can offer a new lease of life to patients awaiting transplants.The exhibition also highlights that organ donation by a single brain-dead donor can save or transform the lives of up to eight or nine people. It takes visitors through the various stages of the donation process, including family counselling following brain death, obtaining consent, the dignified farewell accorded to donors with a guard of honour and the use of a ‘green corridor’ to facilitate the rapid transportation of organs for timely transplantation.A dedicated section of the mandap showcases Surat’s journey in organ donation and the milestones that have contributed to its recognition as an ‘Organ Donor City’. Donate Life, which has been working in the field for 21 years, has facilitated the donation of 1,400 organs and tissues, benefiting more than 1,290 recipients.Donate Life founder and Padma Shri awardee Nilesh Mandalewala said the organisation’s long-term mission is to help ensure that by 2047, no person in India loses their life because of a shortage of transplantable organs.
