A senior citizen from Maharashtra, on a 10,000-km solo motorbike ride across the country to create awareness of organ donation, drove into the city on Friday to underscore the significance of his campaign.
Participating in a programme organised by the Hyderabad chapter of CII Young Indians (Yi), 67-year-old Pramod Laxman Mahajan sought to drive home the message citing his own decision of donating a kidney to an ex-Army man 18 years ago. His decision changed the life of the recipient, who went on to have two children.
The awareness campaign on motorbike, which began from Pune, would take Mr. Mahajan across 18 States in 100 days.
The CII release said there is a need to extensively engage people and spread the message of organ donation; the awareness is important in the backdrop of the 1:10,000 donor to recipient ratio in India.
CII Young Indians (Yi) as part of its GiftAnOrgan initiative has been organising awareness programmes in educational institutions.
CII Yi has also launched tabletops awareness campaign materials for use at restaurants, hotels and supermarkets as well as a website (http://www.giftanorgan.org).