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2017 Donate Life ECHO Focuses On The Importance Of Donation And Transplantation In Multicultural Communities
Multicultural communi- ties are disproportionately in need of lifesaving organ trans- plants – especially kidneys.
Currently, 58 percent of the U. S. transplant waiting list is comprised of ethnically diverse patients, but the per- centage of multicultural Floridians who are awaiting a transplant is even higher at 59 percent.
To address this need, two national organizations, Do- nate Life America (DLA) and the Association for Multicul- tural Affairs in Transplanta- tion (AMAT) created Donate Life ECHO.
Held each year in July, Donate Life ECHO is the na- tional two-week outreach campaign, focused on the im- portance of donation and transplantation in multicul- tural communities. ECHO stands for Every Community Has Opportunity – the oppor- tunity to save and heal lives.
“ECHO is about giving
every community a voice in saving and healing lives, through organ, eye and tissue donation,” says Remonia Chapman, president of AMAT. “Diverse languages, different methods, yet one message – LIFE."
Local organ and tissue re- covery organizations, such as LifeLink Foundation, provide facts and opportunities for ethnically diverse communi- ties to register their wishes to save lives through donation and platforms for those who’ve received a transplant to share their stories by volun- teering.
“LifeLink Foundation fully supports the efforts of our na- tional partners and encour- ages all Hillsborough County residents that have a connec- tion to organ and tissue dona- tion to ECHO their donation experience,” explains Ruth Duncan Bell, Senior Vice President of Public Affairs for LifeLink Foundation. “Social
RUTH DUNCAN BELL ...Senior Vice President, Public Affairs, LifeLink Foundation
media has provided the ideal way to ECHO a person’s do- nation experience and let oth- ers know donation works. It saves and enhances lives.”
This year, Donate Life ECHO will be held July 9- 22 and will include:
#HearMyStoryOf Video Contest: Open to in- dividuals and groups to create a 30-60 second video sharing their donation and transplan- tation story and Donate Life
ECHO message. Video entries will use the hashtag #HearMyStoryOf, e.g., #HearMyStoryOf #Hope, #HearMyStoryOf #Waiting, #HearMyStoryOf #LIFE, to speak on a personal level about the importance of mul- ticultural communities regis- tering their decisions to be organ, eye and tissue donors. The video contest will be hosted on Facebook.com/Do- nateLife.
Walgreens efforts to help raise consumer awareness: Throughout July, information about Do- nate Life ECHO will be fea- tured on Walgreens health resource panels included with prescriptions filled at its retail and local specialty pharma- cies nationwide.
In addition, Walgreens will host donor registration drives at select Walgreens stores in a few markets across the country.
DoneVida.org: Donate Life America is excited to launch a website that offers the online national registra-
tion opportunity and re- sources in Spanish. Signing up at DoneVida.org registers your donation decision in the National Donate Life Registry (RegisterMe.org).
United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) research re- veals that, “successful trans- plantation is often enhanced by the matching of organs be- tween members of the same ethnic and racial group.” In- creasing educational efforts, outreach and registration op- portunities are vital steps to- wards increasing the number of registered donors and lives saved in multicultural com- munities.
You can register your deci- sion to be an organ, eye and tissue donor by logging on to www.DonateLifeFlorida.org and clicking the “Sign Me Up Today” tab. Help save lives. Register today or ECHO your story. (See LifeLink ad in this issue)
(Data from Organ Pro- curement and Transplanta- tion Network (OPTN) as of May 7, 2017.)
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