The donation and transplantation activities will be promoted through a communication and awareness-raising campaign that was launched by the Transplant Agency on January 22. A video clip and informative materials will be disseminated within it. According to the Agency’s director Igor Codreanu, it is important for the population to be permanently informed about transplantation so that they realize its significance, IPN reports.

The video clip that lasts for 30 seconds will be broadcast on a number of TV channels and radio stations. A web page will be created on a social networking site to promote donation and transplantation. Over the last two years, the transplants in Moldova have been performed through the Twinning Project that is supported by the EU.

The Project’s resident counselor Patricia Sanchez Rico said it is known that there is a general wish to possess information about transplantation. “It is a social campaign with a number of activities. We will disseminate a video clip through different media outlets and will also produce other materials to inform the population about the importance of transplantation. We will communicate with different groups of specialists as we want this information to be widely disseminated,” she stated.

According to Igor Codreanu, the number of cases of refusal by relatives to allow transplanting organs or tissue from a dead person has increased. “Most of the people accept the possibility of donating, but later a part of them, after discussing with relatives, come back and say that they don’t know what the wish of the dead person would have been and thus refuse to assume responsibility. That’s why we must inform the population about the importance of transplantation, including through the mass media,” he stated.

Roser Valles, communication expert at the Catalan Transplant Organization, said that Spain is the country with the highest rate of donations and transplants in the world. “The question is how we achieved such results. The answer is that during the last few years we enjoyed technical development and worked a lot to raise people’s awareness through information and communication,” said Roser Valles.

The communication and awareness-raising campaign will continue until the end of February.