Carlos Slim Foundation in the transplants event ‘Vidas Compartidas’

The event for ‘Vidas Compartidas’ (Shares Lifes), a campaign for organ and tissue donation, was held in the facilities of the Institute for Social Security and Services for State Workers (ISSSTE) Buenavista in Mexico City on 13^th October 2017. The event was aimed to recognized medical team of the institution involved in organ donation, organ recipients and most importantly organ donors for the important decision of donating an organ or the relatives of a dead donor who granted a new opportunity of life.

This event commemorates and reflects on the importance of organ transplants for the human life and how necessary they are to change the meaning of life of people.

Carlos Slim Foundation (CSF) is working with the ISSSTE granting one-year scholarships to 24 medical interns from the National Autonomous University Mexico (UNAM), who will do their Social Service on donation, procurement and transplantation. This group of scholarship holders will serve as support for Donation Coordinators in different ISSSTE hospitals.

CSF has a program called Kidney Health and Transplantation, supported by Inbursa Foundation and created to promote prevention of chronic renal failure , promote the culture of organ donation , support organ procurement and carrying out transplants, through partnerships with state governments, national institutes of health, hospitals and civil society organizations.

Within this program, the campaign Heroes for Life (Héroes por la Vida) is carried out to promote the culture of altruistic donation of organs and tissues.

Heroes for Life is a permanent campaign to promote organ and tissue donation for transplantation. Seeks to raise awareness and inform the population about the importance and significance of organ donation. Its goal is to count every day with more donors, so that people who are waiting can be transplanted.

The number of people waiting for a transplant increases every day. In Mexico there are more than 20,000 children, women and men who are registered waiting for a transplant. Annually, only 1,587 transplants are performed from afterlife donation, mainly because of the lack of available organs.

In Mexico, the number of organ donors is 10 times lower than in countries like Spain. Therefore, it is urgent to raise awareness about donating to give a chance of life to more people.

A person who donates his organs when you no longer need them can save more than 7 lives.

In addition to promoting the culture of organ donation, Carlos Slim Foundation has a support program for performing transplants, which works through partnerships with state governments, National Institutes of Health, hospitals and civil society organizations. From 2001 to 2017 it has supported the implementation of 9,040 transplants.

The event was attended by Dr. Jose Narro, Minister of Health; Jose Reyes Baeza, Director General of the ISSSTE ; Dr. José Salvador Aburto , director of the National Transplant Center (CENATRA);  Sara Irene Herrerias, Deputy Prosecutor for Human Rights, Crime Prevention and Community Services; Juan Manuel Verdugo, Secretary General of the ISSSTE; Dr. Jorge Guerrero, medical director of the ISSSTE; Dr. Axel Sánchez, national coordinator of transplants at the ISSSTE; and Dr. Roberto Tapia Conyer, General Director of the Carlos Slim Foundation.