MOTTEP IN PERSPECTIVE

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1 Cleveland Minority Organ & Tissue Transplant Education Program MOTTEP IN PERSPECTIVE From the Director s Chair: Linda D. Kimble Happy Summer to You!!! Did you know? July 18th is Cleveland MOTTEP s 11th Annual Golf Outing at the Signature of Solon The Golf Outing will be Cleveland MOTTEP s largest fundraising event, so make sure you come out and support us! I am excited to share with you that Cleveland MOTTEP continues to undertake new opportunities and ideas that will propel us to a more comprehensive level of multicultural education and commitment. July 2016 On June 14 th, we were a sponsor for The 2016 Pastoral Luncheon--The Gathering: A Challenge to the Community. The goal of the program was to garner support from pastoral leaders within the multicultural faith community to promote the mission of saving and healing lives through organ, eye, and tissue donation, which touches so many in our community. Approximately 150 individuals were in attendance and all who were present received an information-packed pastoral tool kit. The program featured Cleveland s own gifted and talented gospel recording artist BET s Sundays Best Season 7 Winner Geoffrey Golden. Several people shared their personal stories about donation with the participants. Pages 2 Cord Blood Awareness Month What it is and why it is important Pages 3 Cleveland MOTTEP s 11th Annual Golf Outing Page 4-5: Nistha Page 6: Transplant Games Recap Page 7: House Bill 137 The event also celebrated the 2016 Faithful Stewardship Award Recipients: The Case MetroHealth Center for Reducing Health Disparities Mrs. Marcella Boyd Cox, CMO of E. F Boyd and Sons Funeral Home Rosa Beltre, Community Advocate Throughout the ongoing year we will continue to educate through our programming and partnerships about our mission and vision. Find out more about Cleveland MOTTEP by visiting our website, or call Linda D x137

2 MOTTEP IN PERSPECTIVE Tissue donation, which included bone marrow transplants, can enhance up to 50 lives. National Cord Blood Awareness Month What is Cord Blood? Umbilical cord blood is blood that comes from the attached umbilical cord after childbirth. Cord blood is collected because it contains a small number of adult stem cells that eventually mature into healthy blood cells. Cord blood can be donated for transplantation as a substitute for a person who is in need of a bone marrow transplant. This is especially the case when patients in need of a bone marrow transplant are unable to find a match among their relatives. If none of the patient s relatives can donate bone marrow to them, then the patient must look for an unrelated matched donor. This process can be very lengthy, tiresome, and does not always guarantee that a match will be found for the patient. This is especially true for minorities as they tend to be on the waiting list more than the general population. Cord blood research has shown the effectiveness and safety of cord blood transplants as it can be more easily donated by people who are unrelated to the patient in need. Benefits of Cord Blood Donated for Transplantation Cord blood from unrelated donors has been used as an alternative to bone marrow/ mobilized stem cells as a source of hematopoietic stem cells for more than 20 years. This can cure genetic disorders and blood diseases like sickle cell disease and leukemia. Cord blood can be frozen for up to 13 years in storage and is available until used. Umbilical cord donation poses no medical risk to the mother or infant as it is usually just thrown away by the doctors if not donated. A small volume of cord blood is needed for transplantation opposed to the quart of bone marrow that a donor must give for transplantation. Page 2

3 Events in July July 2016 Page 3

4 Nishtha Chugh: Organ Donation in the UK Nishtha Chugh is an independent journalist from the UK who has recently won a Winston Churchill Fellowship. For her fellowship, Chugh is researching what organ donation looks like in the United States, so that she can compare it to the UK as well as other countries. Her visit to the United States is just one of the countries she will be visiting on her fellowship, as she will be traveling to other countries such as Pakistan to see how organ donation works over there. While in the United States, Chugh made a stop in Ohio to see the Transplant Games as well as to interview the Executive Director of Cleveland MOTTEP, Linda Kimble. Chugh learned more about MOTTEP s organization and purpose, as Kimble addressed the myths that she commonly hears in the community. In the interview Kimble explained why these myths are untrue as she would out in the community, in hopes of increasing the number of organ and tissue donors in the Greater Cleveland minority community. Kimble also explained how MOTTEP is about prevention as well, as it strives to decrease the number and rate of people in need of organ and tissue transplants through prevention education. After her interview, Chugh was kind enough to answer some questions herself about what she has seen globally about organ donation. Like the U.S., the UK is experiencing huge disparities within their organ donor registry among the minority community. Specifically in 2015, people of African and South Asian ethnicities only made up of 2% of the deceased organ donors each, while Caucasians made up 94%. Thus, there is a particular need for more people of African and South Asian ethnicities to register as organ donors. The fact that donation rates among African and South Asian communities in the UK are low but the need is high is a similar to the pattern seen in the U.S. among their African American and Hispanic communities. Just as the minorities in the U.S, people from African and South Asia ethnicities in the UK are more likely to develop health conditions that can lead to kidney failure, and on average during they'll wait a year longer for a kidney transplant than a white patient. The difference between the UK and the U.S. is the fact that the UK has a larger South Asian population, thus the UK has more of an issue with getting them to sign up as organ donors. Chugh explains that the South Asian community has cultural taboos that are against organ donations, but they are willing to receive a donation if they need one. This is especially true for the South Asians who practice Hinduism as they believe in the afterlife, specifically that they will have the same body in the afterlife as they did during their life. Therefore, they believe that if they donate their organs during life, they will not have any during afterlife. Overall, the UK has similar issues as the U.S when it comes to disparities within the organ donation list among minority communities. These minority communities tend to need organ donation the most, yet are more reluctant to sign up to be an organ donor themselves. Kidney failure due to diabetes and high blood pressure has been an issue in both countries as well as the UK has spent millions of pounds on dialysis for patients. Thus, the UK is now focusing on how to prevent these diseases through education and increase the numbers on the organ donor registry as it is cheaper in the long run, which is what Cleveland MOTTEP is doing right now in the Greater Cleveland community. Page 4

5 Nishtha Chugh: Organ Trafficking Another phenomena that Nishta Chugh has seen in other countries is organ trafficking, which has also been known as transplant tourism. Chugh has visited countries such as India and Sri Lanka, where the black market for organs thrives. Transplant tourism usually occurs when a person in poverty is so desperate for money that they agree to sell their organs to an organ broker. These organ brokers then sell these organs to foreign recipients, who are most likely sick of waiting for an organ in their country. As a result, they travel to a different country where an organ can be easily obtained. In an article from the guardian, journalists have found that patients can pay up to $200,000 for a kidney to gangs who harvest organs from vulnerable people who only get paid $5,000. Chugh explains that this is able to occur due to the lack of law implementation and enforcement in countries such as in India and Sri Lanka. In fact, transplant tourism began in India and has now become popularized. The World Health Organization (WHO) revealed that 10,000 black market operations involving purchased human organs now take place annually, which translates to more than one an hour. Kidneys make up for 75% of the organs that are put out for trade due to the increase in prevalence of diabetes and high blood pressure. To learn more about the global issue of organ trafficking and transplant tourism, read these following articles: The state of the international organ trade: a provisional picture based on integration of available information from the Bulletin of the World Health Organization by Yosuke Shimazono Illegal kidney trade booms as new organ is 'sold every hour' from The Guardian partnered with WHO by Denis Campell and Nicola Davison Need a kidney? Inside the world s biggest organ market from Aljazeera by Nishtha Chugh Page 5

6 Transplant Games of America This year the Transplant Games of America were held in Cleveland, Ohio, where organ, eye, and tissue recipients as well as living donors were able to compete in sporting events throughout the week. However, at the end of the day the Transplant Games were not about who won, but were about celebrating life as a community. These brave people demonstrated what they were able to do now that they have obtained a second chance at life. This event included a Donor Tribute Ceremony, in which recipients gathered to express their gratitude to their donors because without registered organ, eye, and tissue donors, there would be no Transplant Games. The stories of the participants were heartfelt and can be found on the Cleveland MOTTEP Facebook page as well as on the Facebook pages of the Transplant Games of America, Lifebanc, and Donate Life Ohio. The closing ceremony took place on June 15th at 6pm. This year's Transplant Games was the largest Transplant Games yet as it drew around 9,000 participants to Cleveland. Page 6

7 Ohio Legislature House Bill 137 A Bill has been proposed that would require each public school district in Ohio to include the positive effects of organ and tissue donation in the health curriculum. The Bill seeks to amend legislation on curriculum that Ohio public schools must teach. Specifically, the Bill is aiming to add the requirement that under the health curriculum, school districts must teach about the life-saving and life-enhancing effects of organ and tissue donation. This Bill would be extremely beneficial to Ohio as there are 3,500 people on the waiting list out of the 125,000 people that are on the waiting list nationally. With more knowledge about the benefits of organ, eye, and tissue donation, Ohio residents will be able to make a better educated decision on whether to sign up to become a donor or not. Donate Life ECHO Donate Life is launching an ECHO campaign, which stands for Every Community Has Oppurtunity, from July 10th July 23th that is designed to reach multicultural communities. The focus of the campaign is to educate and help people make their decision to become a donor. This campaign will do so by focusing on the power of sharing one s personal decision to register as an organ, eye, and tissue donor to their community. By doing so, the hope is for community members to echo the response and announce themselves as organ donors as well. This will also encourage registered donors to talk about organ donation within their personal networks and extended communities. ECHO will only be successful if people share their life-affirming message of donation within their community, thus promoting the life-enhancing effects of organ, eye, and tissue donation. To participate in the ECHO campaign, simply make a Facebook status expressing that you are a proud registered donor or tweet about it. You can even change your profile picture by adding photos such as the one above, to your current Facebook photo. For social media graphics, please visit the Donate Life Echo website at To contact Cleveland MOTTEP call (216) ext. 137 Don t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Page 7