Six blood donation drives were held in the month of November with 412 units of blood collected. We would like to thank and congratulate Airtel, Deutsche Bank, Hypercity, KPIT and AMD for their continued support to the cause of voluntary blood donation. The volunteer teams at KPIT and AMD did an amazing work with publicity leading to more than 25% of the associates coming forward to donate blood.
November is a month where a lot of engineering colleges conduct blood donation drives. Due to these events, generally stocks were good and we did not push for too many drives to be held.
One observation from the November blood donation drives was the very high deferral rate at the pre donation area itself. The cold and the prevalence of viral infections led to a situation where at least 1 in 5 donors had taken medication in last 72 hours which made them ineligible for blood donation on that day. Rigor-ous screening resulted in up to one third of the donors being requested to donate blood when they were in a better state of health.
Sankalp has also stepped up the need for careful documentation and study of any inconvenience that the donor faces. What was previously going unnoticed and unreported, is now being look into scientifically. We hope that this will eventually reduce the number of post donation complications. In November we observed 6 major and minor reactions each recorded as per the guidelines of ”Standard for Surveillance of Complications Related to Blood Donation”.
With the number of blood donation drives from colleges expected to come down in December, Sankalp has planned for regular drives till the end of January to ensure that there is no shortage of blood in the city.
Here is what some of the donors had to say in our drives:
The information shared by Sankalp Volunteer was very useful. It would be good if everyone in the camp give such useful information. — Sivakumar (TCS)
Third time donating blood.Want to do further more.Good experience.Good hospitality.Thanks. - Preetham (Deutsche Bank)
Nice,warm & friendly atmosphere provided by the volunteers.Overall good experience and felt comfortable while donating. — Siddhartha (Deutsche Bank)
I enjoy donating blood. I feel I am doing something good whenever I donate. I am always there for the one who is in need. — Sachin M B (K.P.I.T.)