An Important Message for National Minority Donor Awareness Month
By Office of Communications & Marketing | Aug 4, 2025
Every August, we recognize National Minority Donor Awareness Month, a moment to listen, honor, and act. It is a time to uplift the stories marked by perseverance, systemic inequity, and a second chance at hope for those awaiting organ transplants.
Nowhere is this mission more urgent than at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, where we proudly operate Brooklyn’s only kidney transplantation program. We are the only active kidney transplant center in the borough, and the only public academic transplant center in New York State.
In a borough of 2.5 million residents, the vast majority of whom are Black, Hispanic, Asian, immigrant, or members of other historically marginalized communities and neighborhoods where systemic barriers to specialty care run deep and the need for transplants is greatest.
These are the families from communities like Flatbush, Brownsville, and Crown Heights. For decades, SUNY Downstate has been Brooklyn’s only active kidney transplant center, and the only public academic transplant center in New York State. We serve more than 225 patients on the transplant waitlist, many of whom are Black, Brown, immigrant, or low-income New Yorkers who face entrenched barriers to care.
Across New York State, more than 8,000 people are currently on the kidney transplant waiting list. Nearly 2,000 live right here in Brooklyn. And although Black and Hispanic New Yorkers make up more than 60 percent of those in need, they remain drastically underrepresented among living donors. Since 1965, SUNY Downstate has performed over 3,000 kidney transplants, building a program that centers on those most often left behind.
Moro O. Salifu, M.D., MPH, MBA, MACP, Chair of Medicine and Director of the Transplant Program, reminds us that organ donation is a gift of life. Too often, the communities that need it most are the least likely to receive it. His message is clear: closing the gap in organ donation requires awareness and demands action.
When you choose to become an organ donor, you’re saving a life, you’re restoring a future, and helping to ensure that every person, regardless of race, background, or income, has a fair chance at that gift.
Visit www.donatelife.net to register as a donor. With one act of generosity, you can help us #KeepCareClose, honor the lives already saved, and give hope to the thousands still waiting.
Tags: Commemorative Months