This page contains
Rakta Kranti Karnataka Wing of Sankalp India Foundation is the wing which has the primary responsibility of organising safe blood donation drives across the state maily in educational institutions. 2009-2010 saw a sea of changes make its way into Sankalp. From a primarily Bangalore based operative unit, suddenly Sankalp was there all over Karnataka. The Disha team networked blood banks in major districts of the state and the Emergency Wing looked into finer aspects of providing emergency help in other parts of Karnataka. To make the circle of expansion from Bangalore to Karnataka complete, Rakta Kranti had to spread its wings as well. With 1800 colleges spread all over the state the game was our’s to play, or so we thought!. Our challenge was to conduct blood donation drives in colleges in all districts networked to Sankalp. Before people could know, Rakta Kranti was already split – Rakta Kranti Bangalore and Rakta Kranti Karnataka. Through Rakta Kranti Karnataka Sankalp is taking strides to paint the state red.
Objectives of Rakta Kranti Karnataka
In Karnataka, 50% of the blood is collected by voluntary means. Although Rakta Kranti Karnataka did not dream of changing numbers in one shot, Sanaklp felt that this was the first step in that direction. The team and work was designed with the following objectives in mind
- To visit colleges across all districts where Sankalp was networked to in order to propose to them the concept and the need for regular voluntary blood donation drives.
- To educate and motivate students to think and act on voluntary blood donation, with a strong focus on the need for blood and donor safety practices.
- To form small sub units in different parts of the state who can take the message of voluntary blood donation to the locals there.
- To conduct voluntary blood donation drives with a focus on making students from the colleges to take up responsibilities for managing the event.
- To register voluntary blood donors who wish to donate in emergencies and help the Sankalp Emergency Wing build a stronger database of donors.
- To educate people on the good Blood Banks in their areas thereby guiding them not to fall prey to unsafe and profit oriented units.
- To work with Blood Banks from different parts of the state and understand their requirements to be able to cater to the requirements of that area.
- To help Blood Banks get regular voluntary blood donation drives and thereby investigate them for quality of service.
- To spread the message of the statewide helpline and it’s importance during the search for blood.
- To build a stronger foothold for the entire organization in it’s efforts towards working to improve the Blood Banking practices of the state.
What is done in RKK?
Like in Bangalore, we take care of the blood donation drive completely. We visit colleges in all districts, convince the management for the need for a blood donation drive. We then conduct a training for a set of volunteers from the college and then conduct the blood donation drive.
This is what was done in the first year of Rakta Kranti Karnataka
What college blood donation drives outside Bangalore would mean was a big question to the team. We needed a little reality check and decided to work on a sample set of colleges. We took up the task of visiting colleges on one stretch of Bannerghatta Road and covered 10-15 of them. In each we proposed blood donation drives in the way we wanted to and looked at how things would move. A lot was learnt in this period: How to approach colleges, what are the questions we face, things we need, how do plan follow up meetings, when to hold drives, do students need awareness and more such things. Taking clues from this sample survey and extrapolating it, a detailed district wise plan was laid out, route plans decided, permission letters were prepared, which colleges to visit were planned, a Sankalp internal site was prepared for the team to log status , publicity materials were decided upon and the team members had their plans in mind. It was going to be an eventful year few months in view for the team
Bellary, Davangere, Shimoga, Mysore were chosen to be initial targets. One volunteer took to the field and visited these districts. Colleges searched through the medium of internet or otherwise were visited and our plan was proposed. As expected the results were a mixed bag. Initially many colleges agreed and we were looking at 15 blood donation drives, but slowly as the schedules of colleges, i.e. exams, vacations etc became more obvious things got a little slower. In many of the colleges rigorous follow ups and revisits were needed to understand if holding a blood donation drive there was a possibility or not. In the course of time, more districts were visited. Kolar, Raichur, Dharwad, Belgaum too came under our scanner. Statistically speaking 16 in Belgaum, 15 in Bellary, 19 in Davangere, 20 in Dharwad, 13 in Kolar, 11 in Mysore, 12 in Raichur, 23 in Shimoga were visited, thereby making a total of 116 colleges.
Problems of various degrees came up. While some colleges just did not want any such thing in their college, some had an existing relationship with a particular blood bank. There were others who were already holding drives and were satisfied with the frequency of drives or in some number of students were too little to expect a meaningful response. Each of these cases was analyzed separately and strategies designed to tackle them. Finally the team came up with a concept to get a formal confirmation from colleges once they agreed for things. Slowly things started taking shape and more meaning, wherever the team felt holding a blood donation drive is not possible they proposed a tie up with the Sankalp Emergency Wing. These visits, follow up meetings have taken place over the entire period and have laid the foundation blocks for Sankalp drives outside Bangalore.
An essential part of our expansion strategy was to build sub units outside Bangalore who could make a difference in spreading the message of voluntary blood donation. Also to conduct drives in colleges we needed small teams to work in colleges to build the event and atmosphere for a drive and motivate and educate the students. Who better than students themselves could do this? A plan was made. In any college where a blood donation drive would get fixed, the idea was to conduct a 2 hour training programme for a set 5-10 volunteer students. They would be the warriors of blood in our revolution in the districts. The training highlighted:
- The need for voluntary blood donation and the situation of supply-demand gap in Karnataka leading to terrible moments in the search for blood
- The potential of students to donate and make a difference.
- How to hold a blood donation drive: End to end management of the drive.
- All technical, psychological, safety aspects related to blood and blood donation.
- Spreading the message of voluntary blood donation to others and
- Publicizing the Karnataka wide helpline for blood
A total of 26 colleges were covered for Team Red trainings where more than 400 students across the state were made aware of the crucial aspects of Blood. Descriptive and informative Team Red manuals were given to them along with well designed brochures to enable them go back to their colleges and work on essential publicity and spread the message to all. Thousands of students were being reached. With the stage set it was time for the blood donation drives to be held. Team Red volunteers who had attended trainings were in touch with the Sankalp team in Bangalore to try and achieve some sort of publicity. The Sankalp team guided the volunteers to spread the message of the drive through class talks, posters, brochures etc. In the meanwhile blood banks which were networked with the helpline were approached and invited for the blood donation drive. Quality standards to be followed were discussed at length and only after considerable satisfaction that the blood bank and college were ready for things drives were held. 8 blood donation drives were held with a total of 632 units of blood being collected
Highlights:
1. Covered 7 major medical hubs of Karnataka to seek the possibility of blood donation drives thereby ensuring the presence of the organization as a major player in the blood banking practices of the state.
2. Team Red trainings catered to motivate a large base of students from many parts.
3. Strongly pushed concepts of safe blood, safe blood donation and donor care and concern among team red volunteers
4. Like in the case of Bangalore drives Sankalp team pushed in for end to end management of drives.
5. Understood the critical and subtle problems of poor voluntary blood donation index in the state.
6. Understood the nature and working of many major blood banks in the state to build a broader view of the scene related to voluntary blood donation drives in the state
7. Wherever possible highlighted the concept of Sankalp Emergency Wing and helped the Emergency Team in their Karnataka wide search for emergency blood donors
8. Wherever possible strongly publicized the Karnataka wide helpline for blood.
9. Documentation of every interaction on Sankalp’s internal data management system for future references
We have already begun our journey for his year
After a small hiatus due to exams and vacations for students, things are on the roll again. As colleges are opening for the new semester, we are back at their campuses, to conduct trainings and drives. We wish to conduct such programmes across all districts of Karnataka, thereby going ahead to paint Karnataka red.! In case you know of any college anywhere in the state or would want to organise such events in your college, either in Bangalore or outside drop a mail to sankalp.admin/2gmail.com
