LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — The Latin Chamber of Commerce and Nevada Donor Network launched a Latino organ donor outreach campaign Monday.
The campaign, called Corazon de Esperanza or Heart of Hope, is geared toward educating and encouraging Latino and Hispanic residents about the importance of becoming organ, eye, and tissue donors to help save lives.
The goal of the initiative “is to dispel myths surrounding organ, eye, and tissue donation, to provide information that residents can use to foster conversations around donation with loved ones, and to help increase the number of registered organ donors in the state,” a release said.
Many Latinos are hesitant to register as donors, according to the two organizations, and there is a higher likelihood of achieving a match if the donor and intended recipient share the same ethnic background. Critical factors in matching like tissue markers are more likely to be found among people of the same ethnicity.
There are currently 140 Hispanic or Latino Nevadans on the transplant waiting list, and 20% of people on the national transplant waiting list are Hispanic or Latino.
