A Delta high school student is one of five recipients of the BC Transplant “Live life. Pass it on.” scholarship for encouraging their communities to register as organ donors.
Kimran is a student at North Delta Secondary School. She has personally experienced the power of organ transplant through her brother, a kidney recipient. This inspired her to give back by raising awareness in her school community.
Kimran says, “The singular choice of organ donation changed the course of not only my brother’s life, but my entire family’s lives as well. Though Daya was lucky enough to match with a donor, there are still countless individuals in British Columbia, and around the world, waiting for transplants that could alter the course of their lives for the better.”
She organized Green Shirt Day and a creative fundraiser at her school where students could nominate a teacher to get “pied” by donating to support transplant research. At that fundraiser, Kimran also spoke with participants about the importance of registering their decision on organ donation. The event created a lot of conversation, which resulted in the school district sharing a story about Kimran and her campaign.
BC Transplant awards four $1500 scholarships to grade 10-12 students who lead an organ donation awareness project in their school or community during the 2023/24 school year.
However, this year the 5 winners were selected. According to BC Transplant, “With a great turnout of applications, choosing this year’s scholarship winners was a challenging decision. Students created many unique and successful organ donation and transplant campaigns in their schools. The calibre of applications was so high, BC Transplant awarded an extra scholarship this year, for a total of five scholarship winners. These five students created exceptional projects that went beyond their school community and demonstrated a deep understanding of the purpose of the scholarship. “
Simone Duifhuis, Malia Kumar, Narmaya Sternberg and Niharika Yadav are other recipients of the award.
Niharika Yadav is from Queen Elizabeth Secondary School, Surrey. Niharika organized a Green Shirt Day event at Queen Elizabeth Secondary School, creating a presentation on organ donation for students and making announcements school-wide. But she recognized there was a knowledge gap within her own South Asian community. “I found out that organ donation is considered a taboo topic in my community,” explains Niharika. “I thought it was interesting considering Hinduism and Sikhism teachings encourage everyone to do selfless acts. Being an organ donor is a selfless act, yet I do not think people see it that way.”
So, Niharika decided she wanted to make a difference. She set up information tables at a temple for two events. She also created a radio ad on RED FM, a popular South Asian radio station. She worked hard to help dispel myths and create more awareness, speaking with many community members.
Delta high school student Kimran Boparai awarded BC Transplant scholarship for organ donation awareness project
