Blood donation Camp – For a Better Future

Initially starting at the blood donation camp in March of 2020, Arya from Grade 11 visited physical centres set up in each part of society. Her joining the initiative began with a call from her uncle, who is a doctor, and who asked her to assist by running the initiative. Today the team have raised over 650 pints of blood, which can help approximately 2000 people. We reached out to Arya to find out more about the blood donations, how the campaign works and what the plans are for the future.  

Since blood can’t be made or manufactured, patients depend on blood donors for saving their lives – Arya, Grade 11 

During the initial days of the pandemic, Arya and the blood donation camp hosted their first drive, rising over 50 units which was an achievement considering the lockdown. “Focusing primarily on the Bangalore Urban areas, the Naryana Hrudayalaya team and I have been able to host drives in Prestige Ozone, 77 East, Epsilon and the BEML office”, explains Arya, who was responsible for gathering donors in each community, scheduling appointments and creating forms and flyers to help simplify the process. “On the day of each drive, I set up registration booths and guided each donor through the process with help from the medical team”, says Arya, who especially encouraged people with rare blood types to come and donate, especially because these times had dangerously low supplies in blood banks.  

As the BEML is a government enterprise, many permissions and protocols had to be collected and followed. “It was a huge success as we gained over 450 units from their staff”, says Arya, who herself at the time could not supervise operations as she was unvaccinated. “I was able to assist remotely with online registrations and documentation.” Restrictions due to COVID-19 have been eased out, there is less apprehension among people and it is easier to organise a blood drive now compared to the pandemic. Having space available and more people willing to come, blood donations have increased from 60 people in 2021 to about 250 people in March 2022.   

Moving forward, Arya would like to approach the corporations in the tech-park near her home community, as the required working-from-home directive has started to ease out. She would like to do this by working with the NH team and to host drives. “Since blood can’t be made or manufactured, patients depend on blood donors for saving their lives”, says Arya, and explains how the gains from donating blood goes two ways: besides helping to save a person's life – as every 2 seconds a person requires a blood transfusion in India – donating blood helps to track your cardiovascular health, and you might find out if you are iron deficient, about your hemoglobin levels and more. “Donating blood once a year could also reduce the risk of a heart attack by 88% according to the Red Cross”, says Arya who appreciates the help of donors, the NH team and members of the society for their support, trust and efforts.