Minority Outreach

Dr. Clive O. Callender, a New York native, is the founder of the Minority Organ Tissue Transplant Education Program, or MOTTEP, the first national organization dedicated to educating minority communities about organ and tissue donation. With its roots stretching back to 1991, MOTTEP grew to three chapters in 1993 and quickly began spreading across the U.S. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., MOTTEP has 15 agencies nationwide to help solve the No. 1 problem among minorities - the critical lack of suitable organ and tissue donors.

According to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), there are more than 92,000 people on the national transplant waiting list. Approximately 50 percent of those are minorities.

In Michigan, of the more than 3,000 patients waiting for a transplant, nearly 40 percent, or more than 1,100 are African-American. While organ transplants can be performed between a suitable donor and recipient of any race or gender, research shows that the greatest success is reached within minority populations when the donor and recipient share the same ethnic heritage. That is why it is so important to increase the number of minority and ethnic donors.

Gift of Life MOTTEP was established in 1995 and serves African-American, Native American, Hispanic and Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander and Arab-American populations across Michigan. It is committed to:

• Establishing cooperative relationships and acquiring sponsorship from public and private organizations to assist in the educational campaign for the minority populations within the community.
   
• Empowering specific ethnic minority populations to develop and implement action plans that will increase awareness levels within their own communities.
   
• Educating ethnic minority populations to the facts regarding organ and tissue donation and transplantation, and increasing the number of minorities enrolling on the Michigan Organ Donor Registry.
   
• Informing ethnic and minority populations about the specific behaviors and the resulting diseases that lead to the need for organ and tissue transplantation, e.g. diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and substance abuse.

To learn more about Gift of Life MOTTEP, please visit its Web site.