In his mission to spread the awareness on organ donation, Anil Srivatsa of Gift of Life Adventure Foundation with his wife Deeplai Srivatsa reached Sikkim on Tuesday. During his stay in Gangtok, he interacted with students of Tadong Senior Secondary School and Tadong Government College on organ donation.
50-year old Srivatsa from Bangalore has already covered 40 countries and around 70,000 KMs in his vehicle with a single mission to spread awareness on organ donation. He donated his kidney to his ailing brother in year 2014 and presently in his mission to spread message of organ donation and encouraging people to save others life with organ donation.
Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, Srivatsa mentioned that his mission was to spread awareness on medical, legal and social aspects of organ donation. He stated that most of the people have no idea about organ donation. He explained it is important for a family to know if any member of the family is an organ donor as the family has the legal rights to allow the organ transplant after the member’s death.
According to Srivatsa only awareness can change the superstition related to organ donation which is a stumbling block for organ donation.
“I am a living example of leading a perfect life even after donating my kidney. As fear comes from ignorance so I have been travelling across the world to spread message,” he said.
He thinks policy makers can play an important role on this issue. He is of the opinion that laws related to organ donation need to be made people-friendly. “I have been getting an encouraging response and support from the people in my mission. It should be a community effort and not only an individual effort,” he said.
Srivatsa has also launched an app GoL-Million Donor Project to encourage people to come forward as donors. He is scheduled to leave for Arunachal Pradesh on Friday.