“We started the campaign just two weeks back and we have already added some 5000 donors. There are another seven months to go and if we go by the rate of the previous years, I expect the number of donors to touch around 230,000 by the end of the year,” Dr Riadh Fadhil, director, Qatar Organ Donation Center told the media at the official launch of the organ donation campaign.
HMC launched the annual organ and blood donation donation campaign on Sunday evening at the City Center Doha.The campaign was launched by HE Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim al-Thani, prominent Qatari entrepreneur and several senior leaders of HMC. The campaign will run through several shopping malls in the country.
According to the official, the organ donation campaign started in 2012 with just 2,000 donors. “In a very short span of time, we have broken all sorts of records as about 80,000 people register as donors yearly. We just started two weeks ago this year and so far we have registered more than 5,000 donors. We also have about 2600 donors from HMC alone this year which is about 10% of the HMC staff,” explained Dr Fadhil.
The campaign aims to raise public awareness about organ donation and is asking the community members to register as an organ donor. The campaign started on the first day of the holy month of Ramadan and will run until the end of the year at various locations around Qatar.
“The main objective of the campaign is to increase awareness within the community about organ donation, to increase the number of registered donors and to reduce any concerns or misconceptions that people have regarding the process,” noted Dr Fadhil.
“We have a team of highly skilled professionals working in organ donation and transplantation. We have state of the art facilities and provide a safe and compassionate service, in contrast to the commercial transplantation done abroad that carries high mortality rates and the risk of serious complications.” highlighted the official.
“We need more donors to register in Qatar so nobody has to face losing a loved one while they are waiting for an organ. Self-sufficiency in organ donation as a society cannot be achieved without community solidarity," added Dr Fadhil.
Dr Fadhil and his team have briefed more than 400 HMC staff members, who will be involved in the upcoming campaign, with the messages that needed to be conveyed to the society.
The organ donations booths are put up at several malls and popular shopping centres such as City Center, Villaggio Mall,Safari Mall, Grand Mall, Al Meera- Al Thumama, Al Meera- Al Mansoura, Quality Hypermarket-Bin Mahmoud, Quality Hypermarket- Al Hilal, Quality Hypermarket- Al Khor, Lulu Hypermarket - Al Maseela, Lulu Hypermarket - Al Gharaffa and Al Khor Mall
HE Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim al-Thani along with senior HMC officials after inaugurating the organ donation campaign at City Center Doha on Sunday evening. PICTURE : Nasar TK
Marking a significant increase in the number of organ donors in the country, the organ donation registry in the country has reached over 190,000 so far, revealed a top official of the Qatar Organ Donation Center at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC).
