AME conference highlights organ donation
The Seventh Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church is working to get more people to become organ donors.
A new effort called “I AM AME Donation Initiative” was discussed Friday at the AME Church’s 2015 Post Planning Convocation and Theological Institute at the Florence Civic Center.
The “I AM AME Donation Initiative” is a partnership between the AME Church, LifePoint and Donate Life South Carolina.
Thursday’s session included the sharing of experiences by speakers who were each affected by organ donation in different ways. People were educated on the need for organ donors.
The district’s bishop is a kidney recipient.
The Rev. Mary Singleton said her father died about 21 years ago. He needed a kidney, but died before he could get it. Singleton said things have changed since that time, but in a way, they’re still the same.
“We’re still in need,” Singleton said. “We’re (South Carolina) number two in the country for people waiting on kidneys.”
Singleton said the church has always been the forefront of any situation, and the spirituality in the African family has been the church.
“And it was so many taboos about giving an organ, so we have to kick down the taboos,” she said.
Singleton referred to the book of Ecclesiastics when addressing the topic of organ donation.
“Ecclesiastics 12:7 says that the body goes back to the ground, but the soul goes to the lord,” she said. “So we need to know I am my brother’s keeper, and mean it.”
What is most important to her is the need for the community to work together and not be afraid to tell each other they are needed to live.
Guy Henry Jr. understands the need for organ donations firsthand. He has been on dialysis for three and a half years and needs a kidney transplant. He said high blood pressure caused his kidney failure.
Sessions like the “I AM AME Donation Initiative” are important to Henry.
“A lot of people are leery of donating because they don’t know the entire process,” Henry said. “They get scared thinking somebody is going to come in and take their organs and stuff while they’re still living. It’s nothing like that.”
Henry, a member of an AME Church in Newberry, said he is not on a transplant list yet, as he is still trying to raise the necessary money.
Reuben Wright with LifePoint, an organ procurement organization, was able to physically show attendees at Thursday’s session the number of people in South Carolina who are waiting for kidneys.
“I want to bring you a list of what a kidney list looks like in South Carolina,” Wright said to the crowd. “And remember, 90 percent of these people are black. These are our neighbors. These are other AMEs. There are Baptists, churches of Christ, Catholics.”
The list of names stretched across the Civic Center ballroom.
“So when you leave here, you may forget the statistics, but I don’t think you’ll forget how long this list is,” Wright told the crowd.
Nearly 1,000 people in South Carolina are on the transplant waiting list, according to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control. Seventy percent of kidney failure in African-Americans is caused by diabetes and high blood pressure.
Those people who decide to become an organ and tissue donor can help over 50 people, Wright said.
“And, because you’re black and because of the uniqueness of our DNA, most of what you give will come back and help our community,” he said. “So you can have a direct impact into the lives of other African-Americans. You can make a difference just by saying yes.”
Singleton said what is important is that the community needs to work together and not be afraid to say, “I need you, and you need me to live.”
“For a person like Mr. Henry here that’s waiting on a kidney, he shouldn’t have a need as young as he is,” Singleton said. “It should just be a time and not a need.” Henry is 44.
To learn more information about organ donation, visit www.donatelifesc.org or www.lifepoing-sc.org.