Latino Community Awareness - Organ Donor Registry

The Community Spoke

And We Listened

Faith and family play a large role in the decision to become an organ and tissue donor among the Latino community. We launched Let’s Talk to reach out to those communities, where people are more likely to need an organ transplant, yet less likely to sign up as donors. We talked with people in the community and in faith centers and encouraged them to share their stories, to break down misconceptions, to address myths and to encourage their neighbors, families and friends to sign up as donors.

In the U.S., there are about 110,000 people waiting for a life-saving organ, and about 60 percent of them represent racial and ethnic minorities. In Michigan, it’s about half the patients on the waiting list. This is a discussion that can save lives.

Community Conversations

Read Stories of Hope

Staff Spotlight: Veteran Donation Coordinator Josie Springer lends skill and compassion to life-saving mission

Josie Springer is a donation coordinator who has traveled to hospitals across Michigan to care for donors and their heartbroken families for 29 years.

Dain Mendoza works for Gift of Life Michigan. His mom received a lung transplant.

Staff Spotlight: Dain Mendoza lives the mission that saved his mother’s life

“At least once a week, I walk these hallways and I can’t believe I get to work here,” Dain Mendoza said. “Even on those hard days, you think about someone who is going to get more time with their mom, dad or child because of our donors. That’s so powerful, and I don’t take it for granted.”