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Chennai: Forty students of the D. G Vaishnav College in Arumbakkam conducted a bike marathon from in Anna Nagar on Tuesday, to promote organ donation in the city. The marathon was conducted by the social work department of the college, in collaboration with the MOHAN foundation (Multi-Organ Harvesting and Networking).

Assistant Commissioner of Police, Traffic, N. Sivanandam flags off the Organ-a-Thon organised by the social work department of D.G Vaishnav College, to spread awareness about organ donation in the city. Photo: Amruta Sabnis/Digantik

The Assistant Commissioner of Police (Traffic), N Sivanandam flagged off the rally in the presence of the principal Dr S Narasimhan and Head of Department of social work Dr Vidya Srinivasan.

The student co-ordinator Archana Ramanathan said, “In the last 10 days we have helped raise awareness about various issues such as Dyslexia, Suicides, Child obesity, Cancer, Alcoholism, Road safety, Organ Donation etc. It’s been a good experience. We managed to get Radio City to broadcast information regarding the rally and sponsor t-shirts and had the whole hearted support of the Prinicipal and the faculty.”

“The concept of LIVE LABS (Learning to Initiate and Visualize Liasonary Action to Benefit Society) was born as part of the curriculum, last year,” said Ramanathan. “This year however we were able to talk about more issues because of last year’s response,” she said, adding that these kinds of events needed the Government support. For this reason they approached the Police Commissioner, Sunil Kumar. Documents had to be submitted in writing to the officials and once he had given them permission the project took off.

The commissioner of traffic, in his address to the students warned them about road safety and conduct in public. “It is refreshing to see such enthusiasm among the youth towards their social responsibilities. These kinds of rallies do have some kind of an impact on the public. However, it’s their safety that is a concern,” he said.

Head of the Social Work department Dr Srinivasan said, “I was thinking of doing something like this for a long time. Instead of having the students interact with NGOs all the time I felt our students would learn more if they initiated a rally of their own. NGOs usurp the students’ energy for their own means and I wanted the students to instead channelise that energy towards working on causes like these on their own without major NGO influence. I feel their efforts have paid off. We have received a tremendous response.”

When asked about the funding for projects and the source of money for organising events like these, Srinivasan pointed out that all the money used for the event was raised by the students themselves. “They raised funds by themselves, in kind and The Organ-a-Thon was born. Not many people know that every organ in your body can be donated. It’s a good cause and now more and more NGOs are coming forward to help,” he added.

email: amrutasabnis22@gmail.com

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Editor : Ranjani Rajendra