Stories of transplant recipients in Arabic, Chinese and English have been launched on the web to raise awareness of the importance of organ and tissue donation, Health Minister Jillian Skinner announced recently.
Three recipients — Mary Chan, Mohamed Taleb Hawcher and Mohammad Faran — shared their personal stories during the launch at Parliament House.
Mary, Mohamed and Mohammad are three of 21 community advocates from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds who feature in new multilingual audio-visual resources created as part of the diversity project, a partnership between Transplant Australia, the NSW Multicultural Health Communication Service and the NSW Organ and Tissue Donation Service.
“People of any age — regardless of gender, ethnicity or religion — may one day need a life-changing or life-saving transplant,” Mrs Skinner said.
“Around 1500 people are on Australian organ transplant waiting lists at any one time.
“One donor can transform the lives of 10 people.”
The multilingual digital resources will be promoted in social media platforms and at community events.
Mrs Skinner said the resources have been designed to reach out to all communities regardless of age, race, ethnicity, religion or language.
“I urge everyone from all culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds to start a conversation with their loved ones about organ and tissue donation.”
The stories are available on the Transplant Australia website: www.transplant.org.au.
■ For more information on organ and tissue donation, go to:
www. seslhd.health.nsw.gov.au/SESLHDOrgan