CTDN Receives Grant to aid Filipino Community

In clinics, at their DMV offices and even in their churches, members of the Filipino community south of San Francisco are about to receive a message:  Register as an organ donor.

Money recently awarded to the California Transplant Donor Network from the Peninsula Health Care District, which funds ways to improve the health care of people in the areas of Burlingame, San Mateo, Foster City, Hillsborough, Millbrae and San Bruno, is going to be spent on a focused effort to deliver that message to the more than 18,000 Filipinos living in the area.

Some of them suffer from diseases, like hypertension, kidney failure and diabetes, all of which can lead eventually to the need to have organ transplants.  Even so, the registration rates to become organ and tissue donors among that group are lower than other ethnic groups.

“CTDN is proud of our efforts to inspire multicultural communities to save lives through organ and tissue donation. With the success of our Vietnamese and Chinese materials, it only makes sense to develop materials which will speak to our vibrant Filipino community. The large numbers of people from that group on the organ donor waiting list, as well as other Asian Pacific Islanders, make it critical that we succeed in getting more people to register as donors,” said Sandy Shih Andrada, CTDN Community Development Project Manager.

With $10,000 from the district, CTDN’s current posters and brochures about donation already appear in the area’s clinics and hospitals will be augmented and new Filipino faces from the local community added to the appeal.  San Mateo resident and kidney transplant recipient Chris Domine was the person who accepted the grant from the district recently.

There will also be efforts to reach out to Filipinos through their churches.  Like doctors and clinical staff, religious leaders carry clout when people have questions about whether to register as a donor.  CTDN has in place a campaign to bring information about the need for donation to area ministers and other religious leaders.  Those efforts in the South San Francisco area can now be expanded.

Donation can save lives but there are many more people waiting or organs and tissues than there are donors.   In San Mateo County alone, more than 600 people are on a national waiting list for an organ.  The heart, lungs, pancreas, kidneys, small intestines and liver can be transplanted, which means a single donor can save eight others.  Tissues - -including corneas and skins – can enhance the lives of 50 others through tissue donation.

To learn more about the Health Partners Saving Lives, the High School Education and the Faith-based campaigns undertaken by CTDN, go to www.ctdn.org/healthclinicpartners.html