News and Updates from April 2013

Blood Donation Drives outside Bangalore

Blood Donation Drive at Lingarajappa College Of Engineering, Bidar.
This was Sankalp's first blood donation drive in Bidar. 7 team red volunteers enthusiastically worked throughout the drive to motivate students and teachers to donate blood. In a college with around 300-350 students studying about 70 students turned up to donate blood. However, many donors had to be turned down due to lower levels of Hb. Finally, 45 students donated blood. For more than 80% of them this was their first blood donation. The principal of the college also extended excellent support for the drive. The college also promised to organise blood donation drives regularly with Sankalp. The institution also has a section of students studying in class 11 and 12. About 20 or so students from these classes keenly observed the blood donation process. Many of these kids even offered to donate blood despite being only 17 years old.

The Blood bank of Bidar Institute Of Medical Sciences and Teaching Hospital participated in the drive. The concern for quality exhibited by the blood bank was excellent. Despite the soaring temperatures and extreme heat there were no reactions. Very good screening processes at pre-donation, good donor handling during donation and a good 15 min rest after each donation ensured that every donation was smooth. Another important point was the fact that the blood bank had fumigated the room the previous day. All equipment was moved in the previous day and nothing new got in on the day of the drive. This helped reduce any chance of contamination.

Apart from this, the team visited engineering colleges in Tumkur, Bidar. Discussions with them and colleges in Chitradurga, Gulbarga are on to fix blood donation drives.

Blood Donation Drives in Bangalore

8 blood donation drives were organised in the first month of financial year collecting 761 units of blood.

Aricent
2 blood drives were organized in Aricent on 8th and 9th May 2013. 42 units were collected on 8th and 75 units were collected on 9th. For an organisation of the size of Aricent, there is a scope for much better participation. The team at Aricent and Sankalp are working together to take the message of voluntary blood donation more effectively in the next drive. 

Tata Power
A Blood Mobile, an enthusiastic group of volunteers and a highly charged group of individuals willing to donate blood - this was the Tata Power's first blood drive on 16th April. Thanks to a session on awareness about blood donation and the excitement about donating in blood mobile, many donors turned out for the event. 55 life savers donated blood in the camp. Looking at the high turnout, company is keen to have the other camp inside their campus soon!

Capgemini
A series of blood donation drives happened in Capgemini on 18th, 25-26th May 2013. As always, Capgemini exhibited unparalleled enthusiasm to participate actively in the blood donation drives. Now many organisations can boast of conducting a blood donation drive every 4 months, with ever increasing support from the organisation and participation from the donors. The volunteers who go to these drives find lot of familiar faces - people who they meet every few months - the spirited regular blood donors. It was very heartening to see regular donors adhere strictly to the processes laid out and encourage the volunteers to do what was needful to keep everyone safe. The collection of units was as is expected from a great proactive organisation that Capgemini is. The volunteers from the organisation were on their toes all through the day to fix any problems that were expected to come up. 393 units were collected in the drive.

Sicon Technology
With 200 employees in the company, more than 60 people came forward to donate blood, with 55 of them donating, that too on a Saturday! Company volunteers were highly energized and there was very good publicity. Company volunteers talked to each and every donor personally leading to high turnout. 

Qualcomm
Good camp at Qualcomm. Exceeded 138 units that was collected previously. Employees participated well even though they were working on tight schedule. HR teams were excited to carry out regular events like these. 159 people came forward to donate with 147 of them donating blood.

Emergency Team’s Update

The month of April was an uneven month when talking about blood request where some days the team had too many blood requests and others when volunteers were idle. However there were 61 blood requests and situation becomes little critical as 57% of them were for negative groups. The DISHA team seems to have done a good home work as 45% cases were from outside Bangalore and almost three-fourth of them were for  negative groups only. Blood requests also flew in from states like Goa, Tamil Nadu , Karnataka and Maharashtra  which were managed successfully by the volunteers. Interestingly we did not get  any request for  Bombay Blood group!! However some extra effort from the blood banks ensured that 5 units of Bombay Blood  were reported on the shelves out of which 3 were transfused to a thalassemia patient (Kiran).

The team sat down for its internal review and set targets for the ongoing year and ensure  better response to the needy. The team on behalf of the entire Sankalp India Family would like to thank MR Vishwanath and Mr Ram Prakash who came forward at the time of critical emergency and helped us in saving some precious lives.

General Updates

The annual review of Sankalp India Foundation was organised in the month of April. The review involves each team of the organisation presenting it’s work for the last year to the volunteers. The effectiveness of the strategies chose, the goals set and the related details are carefully scrutinized by the volunteers. Once this is done, the roadmap for the upcoming year is set and sealed. 
One team at a time the organisation is taking a re-look at the 13 teams and setting the roadmap for the year to come. 

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