Donate Life ECHO – Increases Awareness about Donation Among Multicultural Communities

Multicultural communities are disproportionately in need for lifesaving organ transplants.

Currently, 58 percent of the U.S. transplant waiting list is comprised of ethnically diverse patients. Here in our community, the local need mirrors that trend. Of the nearly 2,500 people waiting for an organ transplant in Colorado and Wyoming, 44 percent of them are ethnically diverse and 48 percent are waiting for a kidney.

In an effort to address this need, Donate Life America (DLA) and the Association for Multicultural Affairs in Transplantation (AMAT) created Donate Life ECHO, which stands for Every Community Has Opportunity. Celebrated annually in July, Donate Life ECHO is a national two-week outreach campaign that engages the community through social media and encourages the public to talk about donation and transplantation.

One of the objectives of this observance is to raise awareness about the need for more multicultural registered donors. In addition, the outreach campaign highlights the importance of donation and transplantation in multicultural communities and celebrates what transplant has made possible in such communities.

Donate Life Colorado and Donate Life Wyoming are encouraging individuals to celebrate Donate Life ECHO from July 8-22, 2018 by registering their decision to be organ, eye and tissue donors at www.DonateLifeColorado.org, www.DoneVidaColorado.org or www.DonateLifeWyoming.org. Just one donor can save up to 8 lives through organ donation and save or heal more than 75 lives through tissue donation. Once you have registered, talk to your family about your decision to be an organ, eye and tissue donor.