Motivating donors to become regular voluntary blood donors is one way to achieve 100% voluntary blood donation. But in the process, emergency blood requests are bound to turn up and Sankalp volunteers are always on their toes to attend to emergency blood requests. The last hope for a patient is an emergency donation. This is done when the request is of absolutely critical level and the blood is not available in the rest of the city (particularly the rare groups, Apheresis units, and the seasonal shortage of even common groups). Joining us in this Life Saving Brigade are the around 389 of the young enthusiastic freshers at MSRIT.
The drive was held from 20th to 24th October. All the classes were visited and around 389 donors registered, including rare groups. Sankalp Volunteers made it a point to educate and inform the young students about the need of blood in critical situations and the scenario of blood availability in the city. The students were also educated about the Life Saving Helpline –1062 and also the modern transfusion technique of Apheresis. Less than 10 minutes was all that the Volunteers had to educate and motivate the students.
The problems were plenty. The volunteers were not supposed to miss their classes. Nor were they suppose to disturb classes without prior understanding with the teachers. But the planning and the effort gave very good results. It has heart-warming to see so many young men and women volunteer for apheresis leading the society to an era where platelet apheresis will be a voluntary act like blood donation.
Overall, it was a great learning experience for most of the volunteers. A new battalion has been recruited in the army of life savers. And the preparation for the battle for life has crossed yet another milestone.