Emergency Wing
Handling 21 emergency request in a month is not at all a difficult task for the Emergency Team but if out of every two requests, one turns out to be a dengue then there is a much daunting task at hand. Sankalp volunteers are not doctors or but their experience spanning across 10 years helps them to judge whether or not platelets is required. The choice between Random Donor Platelets (RDP) and Single Donor Platelets (SDP) is left to the doctor. Very often the team faces a situation where RDP could have been a better option over SDP due to the availbility and the practical constraints.
The team also handled 3 Bombay Groups requests in September where 2 donors Mr Harsha and Mr Uday donated blood and saved the situation. Also on two different occasions Mr Jayanth and Mr Subham came forward and went for the apheresis procedure. Additionally, many donors walked into blood banks and donated thereby mitigating specific group shortages before they could occur.
Disha
September witnessed good blood stocks across the state of Karnataka. The team received calls from Blood bankers who were willing to give excess blood to other blood banks with higher need. With the excellent networking among blood banks in place, government blood banks received blood and were able to utilize it. Inspite of the excess of blood, platelates still went short on the blood bank shelves. With the epidemic dengue still haunting the state, several platelets requests (RDP as well as SDP) were forwarded to the Emergency Wing.
It was realized by the team, that calls to the helpline from several government hospitals in Bangalore were dipping. Disha volunteers had visited over 400 hospitals in Bangalore two years back and had put up helpline stickers and posters there, but due to renovation and white washing, many of those were removed. The team took up an activity of identifying the 15 most critical hospitals of Bangalore and re-visiting them. 5 of these were visited in September and stickers and posters were put up. Remaining will be visited in the times to come. Additionally, the team is also on the verge of sending helpline awareness materials to 400+ hospitals in districts from which more volume of calls are expected.
Rakta Kranti
Sankalp organized 15 camps in September collecting 1118 units of blood.
i) Capgemini- A series of camps were organized in Capgemini on 3-4 September. 2 day camp at Capgemini, Prestige Shantiniketan, 1 day camps at Capgemini Ecospace and Capgemini, Brigade Metropolis. As always, the response in these camps in term of donor turnout was great. Despite camp starting late in Shantiniketan location, enthusiastic employees came forward in huge numbers to donate blood on both the days. 275 units were collected in this location.
In Ecospace location. a camp was organized after 4 months. Even without much publicity done for camp, there was good donor motivation and 59 units were collected in the camp.
Camp in Metropolis location was organized on 3rd Sept. Though the venue was air-conditioned, but there was sunlight in the venue in afternoon. However, the beds were setup in a way that sunlight didn't affect the camp. With regular shifting of beds, it was made sure that blood donation is comfortable and without problems for all the donors. More than 110 people came forward to donate with 87 units being collected in camp.
ii) Maharani College: First blood donation camp was organized in Maharani college on 6th Sept. A motivational session was organized in college before the camp. An interactive talk was given to students in each class. This helped in removing any fears or misconceptions of donors and there was a very huge crowd of donors on the day of camp. A constant rush of students was seen throughout the duration of camp. This was a camp which saw a lot of hb rejections as the college has only girl students. More than 200 students came forward to donate but only 45 were found eligible after thorough pre donation examination.
iii) DHL & Blue Dart: A series of camps were organized in different locations of Blue Dart and DHL from Sept 7 to 20th, on the occasion of International Volunteer week.
a) First camp was organized in DHL, HSR Layout on 7th September. Good publicity resulted in good donor turnout and more than 80 people turned out for the event, with 58 of them donating,
b) A camp was organized in Blue Dart, BIAL on 10th September. As Sankalp continues to organize more and more camps, sometimes there are camp which teach us a lot. Such camps are failures but they better our future camps. This was one of such camps where in previous years 105 and 90 donations came down to 36 donations this year. This can be attributed to several reasons, the major being festival time and another camp organized in BIAL some time back.
c) On 12th September, a camp was organized in DHL, Mysore Road for the first time. The venue of this camp became a little hot in afternoon and 3 donors had vasovagal reaction in 10 mins. But proper care was given to all the donors to ensure the camp went on smoothly and without further post donation complications. 36 units were collected in the camp.
d) A camp was organized in HAL location of Blue Dart on September 20. There was very low turnout than expected from the company. This camp was similar to BIAL camp where more than 100 units were collected in last camp, but very few donors came forward in this camp. However, company did a good publicity and some employees went to different locations nearby getting more donors. Due to their efforts, 36 units were collected in the camp.
iv) Akamai- Sankalp organized the 2nd blood donation camp in Akamai on 11th Sept. The employees in this location work in shifts, In the initial two hours, the donor flow was very sparse. However, post lunch, people came out in good numbers to donate blood. 82 units were collected in the camp.
v) Infosys BPO- A 2 day camp was organized in Infosys, Electronic City location. This location has huge employee base with more than 25k people working there. Due to this, there was a constant donor flow on both days of camp even without much publicity. The only publicity that was done on both days was talking to people who were having lunch in cafeteria. This helped to increase number of donors significantly. 70 units were collected on Day 1 and 77 on Day 2 of camp.
vi) Systech- Second blood donation drive was organized in Systech on 18th September. Due to the change in weather, there were many donors who had flu or cold and were on medication. This resulted in many deferrals from the registration desk. More than 40 people were willing to donate, but only 26 could donate blood.
vii) Kennametal: A second camp was organized in Kennametal on 20th Sept. There was full support from the team of volunteers in the company and a good motivation. Over 10% of employees came forward for the noble cause. 165 units were collected in the event, which were distributed in 2 blood banks.
viii) Alliance University- A 2 day camp was organized in Alliance on 30th Sept and 1st October. Generally college students are very enthusiastic to donate blood. Though an awareness session couldn't be arranged in the college and there were 2 other seminars going on where more than half of students were participating, a huge rush of students was seen post lunch on Day 1. All the students were very keen to donate. More than 120 registered for the camp on Day 1 and 66 donated blood.
Several events were planned outside Bangalore last month. Below are the updates:
1) Team Red Training in Bheemanna Khandre Institute of Technology (previously Rural Engineering College), Bhalki: Team Red training was organize on 16th September. 25 students attended the session. It was a good session with lots of questions from student volunteers. A camp would be scheduled in October 3rd week.
2) Team Red Training in B. V. Bhoomaraddi College Of Arts, Science and Commerce, Bidar: Team Red training was organized on 21st September in the college. 25 student volunteers from NSS and 5 faculty members attended the session. A camp would be scheduled post October 14.
3) Team Red Training in Government College, Gulbarga- Team Red training was done on Sept 21. 25 volunteers attended the session. Camp is fixed for October 1st.
4) Company Visits in Hubli- Several companies were visited in STPI, Hubli on September 17th. Though a meeting with STPI officer could not be scheduled, there was a good response from several of the companies. A well organized camp in one of these companies can open the gates for camps similar to those conducted in ITPL, Bangalore.
Tech Team
Sankalp Tech Team has come up with an android App for Donor Registration, thereby extending technology further into the Blood Donation Camp. A registration form would be used in a standard tablet device to capture donor registration details. Having a digital form will reduce the pain and effort of manually typing the registration details for follow up and feedback that volunteers do after the camp.
The Tech team is also on the verge of releasing an Android App for Disha Helpline, which will enable users to know where blood is available in the city at the click of the button. We are extending what the helpline offers with the use of an App.
Apart from the two development tasks, the Tech team also fixed certain bugs in the Bombay Blood Group Site and made some improvements in the Contribution form of Sankalpindia.net.