ONE VOICE, ONE VISION... TO SAVE AND HEAL LIVES

NORCROSS, Ga., Aug. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- August is National Minority Donor Awareness Month (NMDAM). NMDAM is a collaborative effort by the National Organ, Eye and Tissue Donation Multicultural Action Group (NMAG) to save and improve the quality of life of diverse communities by creating a positive culture for organ, eye and tissue donation. National Minority Donor Awareness Month grew from National Minority Donor Awareness Week, founded in 1996 by the National Minority Organ Tissue Transplant Education Program and Clive Callender, M.D., to bring heightened awareness to health disparities, and organ donation and transplantation's impact in minority communities.

The national transplant waiting list currently stands at more than 100,000 people, with more than 60% of those waiting representing racial and ethnic minorities. 17 people die every day waiting for a transplant.¹  

The need for donation and transplant is more pronounced in minority communities where disproportionately higher rates of diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease contribute to organ failure, especially kidney failure. African Americans are three times more likely than White Americans to have kidney failure. Hispanics are 1.5 times more likely than non-Hispanics to have kidney failure.²

On average, African American/Black transplant candidates wait longer than non-Black transplant candidates for kidney, heart, and lung transplants.³ These healthcare disparities reinforce the need for National Minority Donor Awareness Month education and outreach to help heal and save lives in our communities. 

During National Minority Donor Awareness Month, NMAG encourages everyone to elevate the need for more organ, eye and tissue donors within multicultural communities, provide donation education, encourage donor registration, and promote healthy living and disease prevention to decrease the need for transplantation.

Thanks to the generosity of donors and donor families, and the dedication of donation and transplantation professionals, a record number of nearly 41,000 people — including 20,000 from racial and ethnic minorities — received a lifesaving organ transplant in 2021.

To help promote healthy living and disease prevention, NMAG is hosting the 2022 Healthy Living Recipe Contest, which runs from August 1-31. 

For contest details, resources, and more information on National Minority Donor Awareness Month, visit nmag1.org. Donation infographic handouts, printable flyers, web banners, and social media graphics are available to the public in both English and Spanish.

You can register your decision to be an organ, eye and tissue donor at your local DMV or in the National Donate Life Registry at RegisterMe.org or in your iPhone Health App.

NMAG members: American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB), American Kidney Fund (AKF), Association for Multicultural Affairs in Transplantation (AMAT), Association of Organ Procurement Organizations (AOPO), Donate Life America (DLA), Eye Bank Association of America (EBAA), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), National Minority Organ Tissue Transplant Education Program (MOTTEP), National Kidney Foundation (NKF), The Links, Incorporated, Transplant Life Foundation, and United Network for Organ Sharing.

¹Data from Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) data as of July 29, 2022, https://optn.transplant.hrsa.gov/
² National Kidney Foundation, as of July 29, 2022, kidney.org
³ SRTR Risk Adjustment Model Documentation: Waiting List Models, accessed July 29, 2022, https://www.srtr.org/reports-tools/waiting-list/

The mission of NMAG is to save and improve the quality of life in diverse multicultural communities by creating a positive culture of donation. This is achieved with the following goals: increase transplantation through organ, eye and tissue donation; increase the number of living organ donors; reduce the rate and need for transplantation through disease prevention education. nmag1.org

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SOURCE Donate Life America