Bonbons Bons Dons/Sweet Treat Donations – IFMSA-Quebec

Name of the activity: Bonbons Bons Dons/Sweet Treat Donations 

Country/NMO: IFMSA-Quebec, Canada

Program: Health Systems

Contact information: contact [email protected] to get in touch with the Activity Coordinator

Type of the activity: Continuous Activity

Category: Education

Focus area: Medicine related issues, Organ, stem-cell and tissue donation

Sustainable Development Goals addressed: SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being)

General description:

The Bonbons Bons dons activity consists of a tour of houses on Halloween night to raise awareness about organ donation among citizens. Prior to this, participating students received training from Transplant-Quebec, allowing them to present this subject to various households while dressed as hungry student zombies promoting organ donation. Stickers promoting organ donation to be placed on health insurance cards were distributed in several regions of Quebec.

Problem statement:

The problem is the lack of organ donors in Quebec compared to those waiting for transplants. 913 are still waiting as of 2023. Raising awareness is crucial to save lives as 90% of Quebecers wish to donate but only half have signed as donors. It is important to educate families of potential donors about the positive impact of organ donation, as they sometimes refuse to allow it in the event of brain death.

Target groups:

• General population
• Medical students

Beneficiaries:

• General population

Objectives:

– We aim to educate and raise awareness among medical students about organ donation and the procedures involved. Our goal is to reach 100 students across several campuses in Quebec during presentations by Transplant-Québec, taking place during the month of October.

– We also aim to educate and raise awareness among the general population about organ donation, answer their questions, and explain how they can become donors.

– On October 31st, we plan to distribute 1000 donor stickers.

Indicators:

– Number of students participating in the organ donation conferences.

– Number of students participating in the Halloween night house-to-house tour.

– Number of organ donation stickers distributed.

– Presence of students from all 4 medical faculties in Quebec.

Methodology:

To achieve our objectives, we will prepare organ donation education conferences in collaboration with Transplant-Québec at the beginning of October. These conferences will be published on each medical campus’s social media. The local coordinators will promote these conferences in their respective campuses and ensure the smooth running of the conference on the designated day. As the activity coordinator, I am responsible for communicating with Transplant-Québec and receiving the promotional material that will be sent to each campus. On Halloween, the local coordinators will organize a departure with interested medical students to do the house tour and distribute the promotional material. One of the risks of this activity is that there might be bad weather on Halloween day. If this were to happen, the house-to-house tour can be rescheduled for the next day. The partners and challenges encountered will be kept in the archives to ensure the sustainability of the activity.

Plans for evaluation:

To assess if our objectives were met, we will count the number of participants at the conferences and during the campus departures for the house tour. Additionally, we will count the number of stickers distributed to estimate the number of visited houses. We will also create a survey for participants to fill out to gauge their knowledge level after the conference, their overall appreciation of the activity, and if they learned more about organ donation.

External collaborations:

This project was developed in collaboration with Transplant-Quebec, the organization mandated with coordinating organ donation in Quebec. No funding was received for this project. The organ donation promotional materials were provided by Transplant-Quebec, as well as the training given by medical staff.