Netherlands: Turkish campaign for organ donors

The Turkish community in the Netherlands is working on a large-scale campaign to get more Turks to be organ donors.

The Turkish Islamic Cultural Federation (Turks Islamitische Culturele Federatie, TICF), which is an umbrella organization for 150 mosques, and the irreligious Turkish Academic Network (Turkse Akademisch Netwerk) think they should contribute to abolishing the shortage of organ donors in the Netherlands. Research shows that especially immigrant Dutch are unacquainted with organ donation and that therefore there are too few donors from those groups.

TICF President Kasim Akdemir, whose organization represents about 70% of the Turks in the Netherlands - has been busy the past three months with preparations. Sunday, all 150 mosques sided with the initiative. Six months ago the other big Muslim organization, Milli Görüs, held informative evenings about organ donations.

Akdemir said organ donation was a human obligation, also for Muslims. It can be needed by us all, he said, and Islam also bases itself on love and human worth."

In a debate in parliament about the organ shortage, parliament member Fatma Kose Kaya praised the initiative says that the Turkish community shows that it can join in the solving of social problems in the Netherlands, and that's the best form of integration.

Source: Trouw (Dutch)