Fail Story is a new section in Sankalp Patrika. We often share stories of success with you. We thought that it may be interesting or rather important to share with you the stories of failure that we face. We hope that one of you will find a better solution to the problems we faced. At least the learning we had could be made known so that the next attempt does not have to discover the problems all over again.
Several blood banks in India do not hold a licence to hold blood donation camps. It's strange how the national blood policy asks for 100% voluntary blood donation and at the same time the legal framework prevents them from reaching out to voluntary blood donors. Anyhow, let us share with you the story of a failed attempt to bring respite to one such blood bank.
There is a large group of educational institutions in the city which also has a huge hospital and blood banks as part of it. As is the case with most private institutions, they did not have the license to hold blood donation drives. The blood bank relied heavily on replacement based donations consequently often the patients faced hardships. An innovative solution was formulated for this situation. There were 10-15 colleges within the same group. Since the blood bank could hold blood donation camps within its own institutions, it was proposed that the colleges within the same group be tapped for voluntary blood donation for the blood bank. There were 15000+ students on campus. Theoretically, it should not have been difficult to get 3-4 thousand units each year coming voluntarily to the blood bank . The program was designed such that every week there was to be a small blood donation camp to collect about 50 units of blood in one of the colleges. This was to happen in a round robin manner through the colleges. This way the blood bank could get regular blood supply and the students could get to donate blood and participate in saving lives.
After the initial hiccups of convincing the principals of all the colleges to participate in the program were over, the program took off. In the first year, there were regular blood donation camps in the campus. Sankalp volunteers were involved in the planning of drives, organising logistics and motivating small groups of donors to come for each session so as to ensure a year round supply. Finally it appeared that the problem was solved.
The first major crack began appearing when the social work team of the most prominent college in the group decided for itself that it mattered more for them to collect a huge number of units on a particular day than to distribute the blood supply across the year. The glamour and the show of having organised a large event overwhelmed any sense of logic and reasoning. They started strongly resisting the regular blood donation camps. There was a standoff and for the time being the regular blood donation drives were derailed.
The second catastrophe happened when few colleges decided that obliging their personal contacts in other blood banks was more important to them than to adhere to the group's larger interest. Some of them independently organised blood donation drives with blood banks outside the group. Once they conducted one large camp, they claimed to be unavailable for regular drives for the entire year.
After months of struggle to maintain the regular blood donation drives, running from pillar to post and still not being able to get the program back on track we decided that it was time to call the program off. We decided that we should focus our energy into getting blood donation drives in other institutions where we knew our effort would pay off with larger number of units contributed to the city. Unfortunately the replacement based blood bank was left to fend for itself.
Though the blood bank officer was very enthusiastic and supportive of the program, though the design of the program was effective, though the effectiveness was demonstrated in its first year yet the program failed. On retrospect, we realised that the root cause was that the head of the institution was not as closely involved and committed to the program as was needed. No matter how good the activity is, there are always individuals with vested interest in all institutions who come up with reasons and mechanisms to derail it. In such situations it is the leadership and management which should take definitive and binding action in the best interest of the institution. Had the principals taken a clear stand or had the head of the group taken a clear stand and ensured that there was compliance from their associates, the institution would have moved strongly in the right direction.
We are confident that this program can be replicated in many institutions. Beside committed volunteers, cooperative blood bank, supporting management, we realise there is a need for the leadership of the institution to be firmly committed to getting the program implemented.