Campaign to promote 'lifesaving' organ donation across black and Asian communities in East Lancashire

East Lancashire Community Action Project was among 25 schemes to share a £140,000 Community Investment Scheme funding pot to encourage more people from these backgrounds to become lifesaving organ donors.

The faith and community based organisations designed and implemented projects to break down myths and increase support for organ donation after securing funding in October 2018 through NHS Blood and Transplant’s BAME Community Investment Scheme.

Now the impact of the project delivered by all three schemes has been published in a progress report into the first round of projects funded through the scheme.

The ‘Be a Life Saver’ project from East Lancashire Community Action Project encouraged discussion about organ donation among members of the local Asian community through local radio, and awareness raising through social media and newsletters.

Moazzam Ali from East Lancashire Community Action said: “The Community Investment Scheme has been a great opportunity to raise awareness of organ donation within the South Asian community living in East Lancashire. For our community, sometimes lack of knowledge, understanding and personal beliefs can be a real barrier to considering organ donation.

“To break down these barriers we engaged the community via a series of LIVE radio shows on Pendle Community Radio. A total of 6 radio shows were presented during our weekly health show with presenter Shakil Salam. During each show we invited a number of respected guests to participate and talk about the importance of organ donation within the South Asian community.

“We feel as though the project and in particular the radio shows got people talking and reading about organ donation. We managed to raise considerable interest and reached thousands of people throughout East Lancashire. An extensive social media campaign was also undertaken via all of our social media platforms.

“The Community Investment Scheme have been great and have supported us along our journey in raising awareness about organ donation. We really feel as though we have made great progress but there still remains plenty more we can do. Months after the project has been completed we are still presenting shows about organ donation to all of our listeners. We hope to deliver another similar project in the future.”

The BAME Community Investment Scheme is an important part of a Government campaign led by NHS Blood and Transplant, with support from the National BAME Transplant Alliance (NBTA), to address the critical shortage of organ donors from these backgrounds.