Borivli Medical Brotherhood (BMB), a medical association founded in 1963, is well known for its charitable work in the suburbs around Borivali since several decades. A medical association & a charitable trust, BMB was founded by a few stalwart doctors from Borivali, which has grown to have a strength of over 1500 physicians & surgeons. BMB has been in the forefront of tree plantation drives in the lanes of Borivali, to free medical camps for school children, to Walkathon in 2016 to promote “Swattch Mumbai”, an effort to educate the citizens on the importance of cleanliness & waste management. During the Covid pandemic, BMB played a vital role in monitoring & treatment of Covid patients at their home, giving a breather to over-stretched medical infrastructure, as well as getting medical staff & doctors duly vaccinated.
Under the leadership of Dr Narendra Kumar, the then BMB President in 2018 & the then Vice President Dr Nimesh Mehta, a collective call was taken by the medical fraternity of the suburbs to educate the general population & and to make them sensitive to the often shunned topic of organ donation in our community
With that goal in mind & considering that Navratri Garba & Dandia Rass is popular with the citizens of Borivali, a call was taken to merge Organ Donation Awareness Drive with the Navratri Festival, so as to reach out to maximum number of citizens and sensitize them about organ donation. This drive began in 2018.
Any grass root level project faces hurdles & challenges, including changing the mindset of the general population & their willingness towards a sensitive topic. Several educational talks & drives were undertaken over the years, in different localities across Borivali. Housing societies & educational institutes were roped in to reach out to a larger audience.
Religious myths were a hurdle which needed support from the religious & spiritual leaders, so that the myths are busted. Incentives for those who pledge their organs were conceptualized and implemented, like pledge givers can avail of discounts on a large number of medical services, etc along with a BMB Organ Donor Card.
BMB is now onto its 3rd year of BMB Navratri Dhoom Machale – I Support Organ Donation. The event is being held at Jasmine banquets, Raghuleela Mall, Kandivali West. Under leadership of BMB President Dr Rajesh Panchal & his team, BMB intends to reach out to at least 18000 individuals from the western suburbs & spread the message of Organ Donation & its necessity at this moment in time.
In between the sessions of garba, a special skit or act is presented by the doctors of Borivali to encourage Organ Donation. The stories of organ recipients as well as those in the line to receive an organ are showcased, a story with hope in despair:
A trained Bharatnayam dancer who herself was a cadaver liver recipient, did an on stage dance performance, indicating that people have a hope even after a major ailment. The parents of a boy whose organs they donated after he was declared brain dead or the mother who gave a live organ donation to her daughter, their stories are told by the hero’s themselves in front of over 1200 people. Celebrities are invited to give a mass appeal & reach for the noble cause.
BMB intends to hit a benchmark of 50000 pledges but it would be still minuscule considering the size of the world’s second largest population. BMB firmly believes in educating the masses at grass root levels is very important, as only then change can be ensured in the numbers of live/ cadaver donors currently being recorded in India.
You can pledge for organ donation by registering on BMB Organ Donation Number +919136333843
