A multilingual, innovative online education program, called Sandrine’s Gift of Life, is now available. The project, which fits into several curriculum areas, will be available at no cost in two educational streams (middle school and high school) in English and Spanish. It will be delivered through ePALS.com (www.epals.com), the world’s largest online classroom community.

The project’s objectives are to educate young people aged 10 to 18:

• about maintaining healthy organs and tissues to reduce the need for transplantation
• about the critical need for organ, tissue, marrow, and blood donation
• about the success of transplantation in treating illness, and to empower them to talk to their families about donation
• link them with young people with direct involvement in organ donation and/or transplantation.

Youth who have been personally touched by donation/transplantation are particularly encouraged to participate in order to share their experiences with youth around the world.

Financially supported by the Department of Health and Human Service’s Division of Transplantation, the project is part of the Health Secretary’s Donation Initiative, which includes several educational projects for kids aged 10 through college.

It has been developed by Sandrine’s Gift of Life (www.sandrinesgift.com), a non-profit organization. Over 4.5 million teachers and students from 191 countries have registered with ePALS.com to communicate with each other in a safe environment and to participate in educational programs developed in partnership with such organizations as the White House, United Nations, and the Challenger Center for Space Science Education.

The project has been tested in select schools in the United States and Canada and was greeted enthusiastically at the National Education Association convention in New Orleans. It will be available free to any teacher or student by logging on to www.epals.com and clicking on Projects.

Organizations wishing to use this project as a door opener to link with schools in their own community are free to do so. Marketing materials are available at www.sandrinesgift.com. For more information, contact Judith Yaworsky, President, Sandrine’s Gift of Life, 1 800 531-6138, ccl@magi.com