Kidney Wales celebrates after receiving funding from NHSBT to help improve organ and tissue donation awareness within ethnic minority communities in Wales.

Kidney Wales, is today celebrating after being awarded £10,000 in NHS Blood and Transplant funding to assist our collaborative work with our friends at Kidney Research UK in ultimately increasing the number of organs available for transplantation for patients by improving organ and tissue donation awareness within ethnic minority communities in Wales.

The objectives of this project will be to educate predominately South Asian -Sikh, Hindu, Muslim and Arab Muslims on organ donation and transplantation across Wales. We want to encourage people from these communities to make a positive choice about organ donation and encourage them to inform. The project will also see us work with relevant stakeholders to raise awareness of organ and tissue donation amongst these ethnic minority groups.

Initially, to achieve these objectives we will promote and deliver within the 12 month project a series of 4 online webinars. These webinars will be recorded and hosted on our websites. Social media campaigns will also be run throughout the year, as well as during key awareness days such as Organ Donation week, where video content and information will be shared through the use of short videos tackling common organ donation questions, myths, and misconceptions.

Ross Evans, managing director at Kidney Wales, says: “We’re delighted that NHSBT has recognised the importance of our work within our minority ethnic communities in Wales. We are excited to work with Kidney Research UK, Dr Farah Latif, the transplant team, senior faith leaders and members of the community to implement this project raising vital awareness, and removing the barriers that exist around organ donation, in communities with a high prevalence of kidney disease.

Bushra Riaz Policy Lead at Kidney Research UK says: “We are pleased to be working in collaboration with Kidney Wales and Dr Farah Latif on this important project to raise awareness of kidney disease and organ donation among minority ethnic communities in Wales. We’ll be drawing on experience from our previous community-based work in Scotland and England to liaise closely with clinicians and patients to help more people understand the process of organ donation and why there is an urgent need for more people from these communities to donate. We look forward to using our volunteer-led model to help overcome the myths, misconceptions and barriers to donation within these communities.”

Dr Farah Latif, WCAT Fellow (ST5) in Nephrology & Transplantation says: “I am thrilled that NHSBT has funded this crucial collaborative project to raise awareness about organ donation amongst UK ethnic minorities. The funding will allow us to work closely with our communities to tackle misconceptions surrounding organ donation and address the health inequalities our patients encounter.”

We are thrilled to be planning this project funded by NHSBT, and are very excited to begin the project delivery. More information will be available and shared across our platforms in due course.