National Minority Donor Awareness Month
One voice, one vision: to save and heal lives.
About the observance
Gift of Hope is proud to work with you—our Illinois and northwest Indiana communities, hospitals, volunteers and national partners—celebrating “One Voice, One Vision… to Save and Heal Lives,” in collaboration with Donate Life America and the Association for Multicultural Affairs in Transplantation (AMAT).
National Minority Donor Awareness Month stems from National Minority Donor Awareness Week, founded in 1996 by the National Minority Organ Tissue Transplant Education Program (MOTTEP), to bring heightened awareness to donation and transplantation in multicultural communities – focusing primarily on African American, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander and Native American communities.
Share the facts.
Mistrust about the healthcare system and about donation remains a sad reality. Concerted outreach and education through trusted medical professionals, those who have successfully received transplants and families who have donated go a long way in helping people develop confidence in both the system and saying yes to donation.
Disease prevention and access to care is critical.
Multiple health conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure and kidney disease as well barriers to care disproportionately affect African American families and communities. It leads to the need for transplant when people don’t receive the preventative care and early treatment they need.
Waiting list disparity.
Hispanics also are disproportionately represented on the waiting list due to high rates of diabetes, liver disease, kidney failure and heart disease that can lead to organ failure.
Language barriers can be barriers to health.
For every individual who doesn’t speak fluent English: The unfortunate reality is that language barriers often affect access to the health care and health information that everyone deserves.
The waiting list keeps growing.
Too many people reach the point that they require an organ transplant. The more people who are willing to say yes and register as organ and tissue donors, the more we can increase the chances that we can save the lives of those waiting for transplants.
Our goal is to eliminate the waiting list.
Ultimately, through disease prevention and donation, the goal is to eliminate the waiting list—at a minimum, deaths on the list for lack of an available organ donation in time.
