Years of work as a healthcare worker, in Trauma care and later at AIIMS, but I was oblivious to the fact that arranging blood donors can be a big problem. I always though if families want to donate arranging blood won’t be a problem.
However truth hit me when a senior colleague at AIIMS needed five units of O positive blood in urgency. Inspite of my networking , as I used to work in health awareness and also being a health worker in India’s premier hospital AIIMS arranging blood took more than 24 hours. I realised how difficult it would be for those who don’t have contacts .
When I shared the msg of appreciation for my colleagues and friends who donated the required blood, a lot of people appreciated and offered help in the future.
With word of mouth people started msging me about their blood requirements and I somehow managed to meet the demands. As the word spread more and more people joined .
From 2017 I started dedicating my time to generating awareness about voluntary blood donation and working towards the same .
The first major blood donation camp we organised was with BSF in 2017. The then DG Mr K K Sharma was very helpful. He send his jawans to the camp- more than 100 jawans donated blood.
Social media helped spread the message and we got going.
AIIMS blood bank and authorities have been supportive. The first camp at AIIMS was a huge success, we got 3000 units of blood. More people wanted to donate but we had to turn them back.
Ever since we have organised many camps almost 70 to 80 and have got over 20,000 donations.
As they say enthusiasm is more infectious than Covid 19. My enthusiasm rubbed on people and the network started building. If I am motivated to work , I can surely motivate others .
Hence the journey continues ——

As told to Toufiq Rashid