Volunteers are celebrating the success from their latest Blood and Organ donation drive, targeted particularly towards members of the Asian community.

To address the lack of organ donors from the South Asian communities, Asian Rationalist Society Britain (ARSB) volunteers have been engaged in a project to raise awareness of the need for members from the community to sign up to the organ donation register list in the Birmingham and Black Country region.

ARSB’s Project Manager, Mr Ravi Kumar, said: “South Asian people in the UK are three times more likely to need an organ transplant.

"But only 1% of people on the NHS Organ Donor Register are from our community. Organ donation is not something that you think about every day... but the reality is that it may affect any one of us, our friends, families and community at any time.

“On average, 3 people who need a transplant die every day in the UK. As a community at high risk, we really need to act now to prevent more people having to wait so long for a donated organ. To stop this happening we need to actively encourage more people from the South Asian community to register to donate organs after their death and to tell their family and friends about their wishes.”

ARSB’s General Secretary, Mr Sachdev Virdee, said: “We have been engaged in an active campaign, visiting local places of worship, engaging in local radio stations, and community television channels discussions to raise awareness of the dire need for South Asians to donate their organs.

"Some people are not sure whether their religion would prevent them from agreeing to donate their organs after death – yet all the major faiths in the UK support the principles of organ donation and transplantation.”

“We have submitted 59 completed application forms to join the organ donation register, which we collected during our many talks and community engagements across Birmingham and the Black Country. "We are committed to signing up more members, and encourage members from all communities to look into the merits of helping others live by providing a gift for life, by signing up to the organ donation register today.”

The ARSB is also at the forefront of campaigns to raise awareness of physical and mental health issues among Asian communities, many of which are hidden or rarely discussed due to social stigma and various taboos attached to them.

Thus tackling issues such as depression, organ and blood donation, adoption and others, which are the object of much misunderstanding and superstition, continue to be the focus of their work.