Special

At Sankalp India Foundation, We firmly believe that each child must be given an option for complete cure irrespective of their financial status. The HLA test is the first step which determines whether the sibling can be a matched donor to the child suffering from thalassemia. The cost of HLA typing in India is around Rs. 10,000/- per family making it inaccessible to most families. Unfortunately, most families suffering from thalassemia are unaware of the possibility of cure.

The other day I had visitors who had come to one of our day care facilities. For last few years the children - siblings - both thalassemia majors - were being treated at a relatively resource crunched facility. Chelation was barely given and transfusions were given only when they could not be avoided further. I was trying to explain that we would support them with comprehensive treatment if and only if they commit to come every 20-30 days. Local language is not my strength and the look on their faces told me that they were unconvinced.

Sankalp is committed to the cause of ensuring no one dies due to lack of blood. We follow high standards of quality monitoring. We realized that we were receiving unusually high no of repeated blood requests from a ward in a Govt. Hospital. Additionally, the patients for whom blood was required were also the same. In order to understand the situation better, the volunteers visited that ward in 2010.  They were confronted with children who had hemoglobin of 3-6 gm/dl. Someone explained to the volunteers that the children were suffering from thalassemia.

As we crossed the milestone of 50,000 units of blood collected in our blood donation drives, it's the occasion of celebration of the spirit of voluntary blood donation. 

We would like to thank and congratulate all the organisations who trusted us and supported us by regularly organising blood donation drives. 

Prolonged blood transfusion therapy and anemia can cause cardiac problems. Cardiac problems contribute significantly to mortality and poor quality of life for thalassemia patients. Timely intervention can help prevent and manage cardiac complications and save the patient and the family from suffering and huge financial burden.Annual cardiac screening has been prescribed for all children with thalassemia major above the age of 12 years.

The Rakta Kranti team of Sankalp looks to organize safe and high quality blood donation drives all through the year. Back in March 2007, when this was started the aim was to create a movement to push Karnataka towards 100% voluntary blood donation. Here we bring to you what direction was taken up by Sankalp in the last 1 year for Rakta Kranti.

Sankalp India Foundation(S.I.F.) has been working for voluntary blood donation since 2003. Since 2011 S.I.F. has also taken up the cause of thalassemia management and cure. In last 2 years the organisation has supported more than 400 children with thalassemia through 2 thalassemia day care centers in Bangalore, one at Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health and the other at Rashtrotthana Parishat.