The University of Wolverhampton has secured almost £10,000 funding to create awareness of organ donation across four major faith groups across the West Midlands.
The University’s School of Art and the Centre for Sikh and Panjabi Studies has secured the funding to continue raising awareness amongst the Sikh, Hindu, Jain and Buddhist communities across the region.
The funding has been awarded by the NHS Blood and Transplant’s Community Investment Scheme which is committed to building support for donation amongst Black, Asian, mixed heritage and minority ethnic communities.
The University previously secured £10,000 funding to raise awareness across the local Sikh community and this further funding will expand the programme to include the other faiths.
The University’s Centre for Sikh and Panjabi Studies and the School of Art academic researchers, with the guidance of NHS Clinical Teams and Donor/Recipient families, will commission artwork/digital media work that promotes Donation and Law Change whilst at the same time debunking ‘myths’. Graduate creative practitioners will be invited to submit concepts following a national competitive call that will be shortlisted by the panel. Successful individuals will be professionally commissioned to work with the support of the project team to make their work.
Dr Opinderjit Kaur Takhar MBE, Director of the University’s Centre for Sikh and Panjabi Studies and recently appointed President of Theology and Religious Studies UK, said: “Awareness of organ donation is much needed across these sometimes hard to reach communities. Being based in Wolverhampton gives us the ideal location through which to make a real impact through the opportunity to engage with, not only the Sikh community, but these additional faith groups.
“Having the expertise in understanding teachings, beliefs and ethics from different faiths, we will use these to highlight how these faiths support organ donation in an effort to overcome incorrect notions of organ donation being contradictory to religious beliefs.”
Maggie Ayliffe, Head of the Wolverhampton School of Art, said: “We are delighted to be recipients of this further NHS Blood & Transplant, Community Investment Scheme funding. We are an organisation which is deeply embedded in the local area and we have strong grassroot links to the community which we hope to engage throughout this project.
“This will be an important community-based art project. Our students and staff have worked on a number of projects that aim to raise awareness and stimulate conversation organ donation in the past and we are very much looking forward to working with these different faith groups across the region, building on our work with the Sikh community recently, and creating some new artwork that will start conversations and create interest around the social benefits/gift of organ donation.”
For more information about the Community Investment Scheme please visit https://www.nhsbt.nhs.uk/cis/ or contact: community.funding@nhsbt.nhs.uk
The Community Investment Scheme is part of a Government-funded campaign led by NHS Blood and Transplant with support from the National BAME Transplant Alliance (NBTA) to address the urgent need for Black, Asian and minority ethnic donors.
For additional information please contact the NHS Blood and Transplant press office on 01923 367600 or email pressoffice@nhsbt.nhs.uk
View and register your own decision for Organ Donation on the NHS BT Website.
Anyone looking to study at the University of Wolverhampton should register for one of our forthcoming Open Days.
Picture caption from left to right: Pat McFadden, MP for Wolverhampton South East, Dr Opinderjit Kaur Takhar MBE, Director of the University’s Centre for Sikh and Panjabi Studies, Councillor Rajash Mehta and Maggie Ayliffe, Head of the University’s School of Art.
For more information contact the Corporate Communications Team comms@wlv.ac.uk.
