BloodConnect: The Lifeline For Many

BloodConnect: The Lifeline For Many

This weekend, OWN met Annapurna,Yashaswika and Harshitwho are a part of BloodConnect and are playing their part in saving people’s lives. BloodConnect is an organization which works with the aim to eradicate the problem of shortage of blood in the country.

It started in IIT on 1stApril 2010 when Nitin Garg got a request for blood in his hostel. He went around asking people who could donate. This is when he came up with the idea that we could actually start something, where we could maintain a record of people, who are willing to donate blood, and when someone is in need of blood, we can reach out to them. So that is how it started as a very small model, and ever since then, BloodConnect has grown up and is now in almost 8-9 cities and is still expanding over the period of almost five years. They have had around 2512 requests, and have organized Blood Donation camps in more than 150 locations during this time.

In conversation with Annapurna, Yashaswika and Harshit:

What are the plans for the future?

Yashaswika:Presently, we are organizing the expansion campaign which aims at reaching out to more than 50 cities, all over India. So we are planning to go Pan India.

How are students involved?

Annapurna:In my 1st year of college, BloodConnect had organized an awareness session in our college. From there, I got selected along with 8-9 other students. That was how BloodConnect started in LSR. Apart from LSR, BloodConnect has established teams in other colleges like the IITs, i.e., IIT Ropar, IIT Kanpur etc. which has the largest strength, compared to other colleges. There are many other colleges which have BloodConnect teams in action, like Gargi College, IP University, and DTU.

Goodies!!!

We also have a corporate plan to engage people in the workplace, so we also have many people from the corporates helping us.

Ropar, Chandigarh,Kolkata,Mumbai,Kanpur,Jodhpur and Varanasi among others are the cities in which BloodConnect operates and we are looking at 50 more. The Expansion campaign started a week ago and in the campaign, a person is selected from each city who will lead the whole chapter of the city and supervise everything, from camps to establishing a database of every single donor.

BloodConnect Team

There’s this myth that people with tattoos or piercings or who smoke and drink can’t donate blood,is it true?

Harshit:People who have had their body pierced can’t donate blood for 6 months and people who have had their body tattooed, can’t donate blood for one year.

Chain smokers cannot, as they won’t be able to leave smoking. But if one does not smoke for 24 hours, they can donate blood. People who haven’t consumed alcohol or had antibiotics for 48 hours can donate blood. There is a whole list of do’s and don’ts that we send out to the volunteers, before a camp is organized.

Blood typing

Some people also believe that after donating blood, our body becomes weak and it is harmful for our body. How true is it?

Yashaswika: On the contrary, Donating blood is in fact healthy, as, if you donate blood; new blood gets generated in the body, which is ultimately good for your metabolism and immunity. Your body takes 48 hours in order to re-generate the amount of blood you have donated. But for complete health requirement, you can only donate blood the next time, after 3 months.

Yashaswika with Annapurna

I have heard that you can save 5 lives just by donating the blood one time. How does that work?

Annapurna:After the blood is taken, it can be broken into 4 parts; ie. Platelets, Cytoplasm, RBC’s and WBC’s. People who have specific deficiencies, are supplied these specific elements of blood, and most of the time blood is given in the whole. So this is how one could save 5 lives by a single blood donation.

Blood Donors

What are the other events planned?

Harshit:Apart from the blood donation camps in North and South Campus on 23rd February, we are also organizing an event called “Blood doesn’t grow on trees” in the Central Park on the 15th of February, where we will be hanging painted drops of blood on the trees.

Art By Varsha Seshadri

Annapurna:“We also have a 24 hour helpline, where one can raise a request on our website, and we will provide immediate attention, as we have a database of over 3000 people. So we become a link between the donor and the hospitals.

We also have a mascot called Drip. A Blood drop with a heart.” She adds with a smile

Yashaswika:So, in total, we have three campaigns lined up; Fundraising Campaign, Expansion campaign and Benevolence campaign which is going to happen throughout the Valentine’s month. In this campaign, we are encouraging people, how are celebrating Valentine’s Day that the conventional way is a clichéd idea, and instead, two can give life to atleast two people. So go out there and save the life of someone else’s loved one. This Valentine, save someone else’s Valentine.

Art by Yash Verma

So we are looking at 70 camps in 30 cities in the duration of 3 weeks.

So what is your mission?

The main aim of BloodConnect is to eradicate the shortage of blood in our country in our lifetime. We aren’t looking at 50-60 years, as it isn’t a very long term goal. We hope to see it right now. So we are constantly working towards that.

That is a very easy thing to achieve, given that even if 2% of the youth donates we can easily overcome the shortage. That’s why we are focusing on the youth of our country. As 2% isn’t a big number.

Is there anything that you would like to share with the youth of the country?

Annapurna: Well, this message is for all, and not just for the youth. It just takes 15 minutes of your time, and it does not hurt, at all. It’s just like a mosquito bite. Imagine small kids who have thalassemia. They go through needles every day, and that’s not even their major concern.

Art by Anjali Raj

Yashaswika: You don’t need an occasion. Neither should you think, everybody is doing it, why should I?” This way, we would digress, rather than progressing.

OWN agrees and applauds Team BloodConnect’s brilliant efforts, in saving so many people’s lives and wishes them all the best for their future endeavors.