“A single pint can save three lives. A single gesture can create a million smiles.” Keeping this in mind, the National Service Scheme of IIT Roorkee successfully organized a Blood Donation Drive on 13th October 2019. The turnout was a whopping 1013 against the recorded turnout of 857 for the previous drive. There was an improvement in the participation of girls, as among the total donors 17.7% were girls as opposed to 11.3% in 2018. In addition to it, there was an increase in the participation of faculty, locals and the staff.

The organizing team of NSS IITR invested in a lot of effort and time, ensuring mass promotion of the event not just across the campus, but also in Civil lines and Solanipuram. Rahul Kumar Singh Sunil, General Secretary of NSS IITR, reported “This year we have extended the message of BDC, apart from the students and faculty, to the support staff, security guards and even the mess workers. I have witnessed 7 BDCs throughout my association with NSS, and I can proudly say that this year we have a lot of enthusiastic participants because of better .

When asked about the maintenance of hygiene and sanitation, Yash Agrawal, Joint Secretary of NSS IITR, commented, “Due to the outbreak of dengue, the wards are filled in the hospital and to avoid its further spread, we have set up the camp outside the hospital quarters. We have two different blood banks this year- Mother Teresa Blood Bank based in Roorkee and IMA Blood Bank, based in Dehradun. The equipment used by them is sterile and is designed for one-time usage. The disposal of syringes, cotton, and other medical waste was ensured by the use of special dustbins designed to contain bio-waste.”

One of the volunteers from the first year, Drishti Bhasin said, “It feels good to contribute to a noble cause. I am doing the registrations and another friend of mine is giving away the certificates to the donors. We are being supervised by our seniors from the second and third years. We have been working for this day for quite some time as we had regular meetings and promotions before-hand.” The Public Relations Head from IMA Blood Bank said, “I am connected to IIT Roorkee through my organization since 2012. The students here have always been enthusiastic about donating blood and the participation only increases each year. This year we’ve got a good amount of rare blood types likes AB+ and O-.”

The Manager of Mother Teresa Blood Bank said: “ We’ve conducted BDC camps previously at Patanjali Yogpeeth, Panasonic, Hero Honda group, CSF, District court but it is our first time here and the response we’re getting is quite impressive.”

One of the first time donors, Mihir, a freshman, told us, “ My parents encouraged me to come and donate blood, there was no peer pressure. The refreshments are good too so that’s an added incentive.” outreach in the promotional activities.”

One of the donors, Shadab Siddiqui, who donated the blood later in the evening said,” I had to wait for at least an hour to donate blood, but then the feeling was worth it and I am happy to do so.” Another regular blood donor, “I didn’t smoke for 2 days so I could donate blood, that’s how excited I was for today’s BDC.”

When asked about the problems, the major problem reported was that one of the blood banks left early and the entire work-load shifted to a single blood bank. As a consequence, donors had to wait a long time for their turn. The crowd dissuaded many people who had initially come with the intention of donating blood. This was one of the major reasons as to why things slowed down towards the end.

When asked about this situation, Vishwas Rawat, Joint Secretary (Admin) NSS IIT Roorkee, said, “The blood donation camp witnessed a huge turn out after the lunch hours, and this was the result of the promotion done by our dedicated NSS Volunteers in front of the messes, today. As a result of this, IMA (Dehradun) Blood bank, soon reached their capacity and had to leave early. So, the entire donor crowd got transferred to the Mother-Teresa Blood bank. As a consequence, donors had to wait for their turn. Since before donating blood, the blood bank team runs a basic medical check on all the donors, some of the blood donors had to wait more than an hour. Seeing the crowd, some of the donors left, but most of the IITR junta was so excited that they waited for their turn and played their part in this generous cause”.

The blood donation camp plays a crucial part in saving the lives of many, particularly the IITR junta. NSS IITR has partnered with four blood banks - IMA ( Dehradun), Himalayan (Dehradun), Roorkee Civil Hospital and Mother-Teresa Blood Bank (Roorkee). Any request made through NSS IITR is prioritized by these blood banks and the blood unit is made available at a very nominal cost to the patient. As of now, the request can be made by dropping a message on any of the NSS, IITR social media handles, or placing a phone call on the mentioned phone number. The NSS Team is currently working on a portal, which will soon be available on their website. This portal can be used to raise blood requests. In conclusion, the donation drive was a resounding success, with the blood banks exceeding their targets for blood collection. The widespread involvement of the community as a whole for this noble endeavor was an extremely positive development, and we hope to see similar initiatives gain traction in the future.

Pictures-
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=11YAY4aQZUKBUZb78aMlzUzavZbYLDuWs