Since June 1993, the National Minority Organ/Tissue Transplant Education Program (MOTTEP) has been actively working to solve the number one problem in transplantation-- the shortage of organ/tissue donors. With more than, 53,000 person on the national transplant waiting list, nearly 50% represent minorities. Ten persons per day die waiting due to the shortage of organ/tissue donors.

National MOTTEP is the first program of its kind designed to educate minority communities on facts about organ/tissue transplant; empower minority communities to develop transplant education programs and become involved in addressing the shortage of organ/tissue donors; and increase the number of minorities who sign organ donor cards, have family discussion and eventually become organ/tissue donors.

National MOTTEP expanded from three (3) sites in 1993 to fifteen (15) sites in 1995 across the country. These sites are actively working with schools, shopping malls, beauty parlors/barber shops, social organizations, and religous organizations. Corporate and public private sector partnerships are being formed in each site to assist in the campaign of increasing awareness.

As we continue to reach out into minority communities, we are collaborating with other health organizations and taking the message of health promotion and disease prevention which is the most recent component added to MOTTEP's agenda. We address those diseases which lead to the need for transplantation such as hypertension, diabetes, alchol and substance abuse and poor nutrition.

National MOTTEP is in the third year of a five-year grant awarded by the National Institutes of Health - Office of Research on Minority Health and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. It is our desire that minorities of all ages across the country become more aware of the need and become a part of the solution. This is critical because no one should die while wating due to the organ/tissue donor shortage.