When people go beyond their zone of comfort and honestly work hard towards something, the results are always good. The actions of such individuals are inspiring to people around. This story is of one such individual. An individual who is a blood donor hero by himself.
Sankalp has been organizing blood donation drives at ITPL since 2007. Thanks to the support from Ascendas and Applied Materials, the drive at ITPB campus is held regularly once in 4 months. ITPB has more than 15,000 people walking into their campus on any given day. Hence, a crucial aspect when planning blood donation drives there is to invest time and effort in publicity. Usually, one volunteer of Sankalp takes up the task of distributing brochures and inviting people to the drive. This helps garner attention and eventually translates in a collection of 100-120 units on each day of a 2 day drive. This time a little bit extra effort was put in for the drives held in July since the Dengue season was on and we wanted to increase the collection in order to make more platelets available in the city.
But ITPB has always helped us meet some very fine individuals. One man came to donate after hearing about the drive. He donated, but was wanting to do more. When the Sankalp volunteer at the drive told him that he can go back to his office, motivate more people and help collect more blood, he had a task at hand. He asked for a publicity mailer on the basis of which he will pull in more people. The volunteer at the camp site informed one other volunteer to send a publicity email. Unfortunately there was a delay. Although this man was interested. Perhaps he wanted a backup which could prove his claim that blood was required in good numbers during the dengue period. He came back to the came back to the camp venue demanding for the mail to be sent. However, there was a little more delay and the mail only reached him by the end of the first day – he still had the 2nd day.
The information that Sankalp puts forth in publicity mailers is short, inspiring and to the point. He used this mail and his personal aura to great effect. When the drive started for the next day, he came and ensured everything was ready. He then spent a substantial amount of time on the 2nd day making a noise about the blood donation drive. He caught the attention of several people in his office. He convinced them and perhaps narrated to them his own good experience at the drive on the previous day.
Towards the mid of day 2, he walked in again – this time not alone but with several donors trooping behind him. Of the 105 units collected on that day, 8-10 were from his side – close to 10% of donations for the day! Now, this is a man whom we had never known, yet his commitment is laudable. He could have just donated and gone back, or maybe not come back after the publicity mail reached him late despite a 2nd reminder. He chose not to give up. Such donors are for us the face of voluntary blood donation in India. It is through their selfless and timely actions that safe blood is available on the shelves of blood banks.
But ITPB has always helped us meet some very fine individuals. One man came to donate after hearing about the drive. He donated, but was wanting to do more. When the Sankalp volunteer at the drive told him that he can go back to his office, motivate more people and help collect more blood, he had a task at hand. He asked for a publicity mailer on the basis of which he will pull in more people. The volunteer at the camp site informed one other volunteer to send a publicity email. Unfortunately there was a delay. Although this man was interested. Perhaps he wanted a backup which could prove his claim that blood was required in good numbers during the dengue period. He came back to the came back to the camp venue demanding for the mail to be sent. However, there was a little more delay and the mail only reached him by the end of the first day – he still had the 2nd day.
The information that Sankalp puts forth in publicity mailers is short, inspiring and to the point. He used this mail and his personal aura to great effect. When the drive started for the next day, he came and ensured everything was ready. He then spent a substantial amount of time on the 2nd day making a noise about the blood donation drive. He caught the attention of several people in his office. He convinced them and perhaps narrated to them his own good experience at the drive on the previous day.
Towards the mid of day 2, he walked in again – this time not alone but with several donors trooping behind him. Of the 105 units collected on that day, 8-10 were from his side – close to 10% of donations for the day! Now, this is a man whom we had never known, yet his commitment is laudable. He could have just donated and gone back, or maybe not come back after the publicity mail reached him late despite a 2nd reminder. He chose not to give up. Such donors are for us the face of voluntary blood donation in India. It is through their selfless and timely actions that safe blood is available on the shelves of blood banks.
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