POWER PLAYER – ANSHA

This Story was written by Ansha, student and cofounder of Docs Against Donor Disparities

My name is Ansha Gupta and for the past year, I have been working alongside three of my friends to start an initiative. We have been working to spread awareness of donor disparities and have been making an attempt to educate youth about organ donation. We may not have first-hand experience with donating or receiving but we have made an effort to gather unique stories of our amazing donors and recipients. We have been interviewing individuals and trying to share their stories on our Instagram page, where we additionally try to raise awareness. We want to be a part of the change and have been trying our best to enlighten individuals.

We started our initiative in the summer of 2022, we were briefly exposed to the idea of organ donations. Specifically, in that class, we learned about how minorities are less likely to donate organs because they mistrust the medical system. And due to this mistrust, many People of Color die because there is a lack of donors so patients who need these organs, essentially die. We were distraught about this so we decided to take matters into our hands and start this initiative. We call ourselves docs against donor disparities.

Currently, we have been making efforts to educate audiences that aren’t only our local community. That has been our main problem, we don’t have much of an outreach which stunts our rate of awareness. At our school, we have been able to present presentations regarding organ donation. We are calling representatives from our local organ donation organizations to speak to our high school students. We want to partner with our local DMV to help educate.

We hope to always continue our initiative and try our hardest to make a change in our community. The topic of organ donation is not talked about as much as it should be. It is in the power of people to make a difference and we are trying to do our duty. Follow us on Instagram @docsagainstdonordisparities