Once Afraid Of Needle Pricks, This Young Man Created A Pan-India Network Of 10,000 Blood Donors

A man with rarest blood group who had never donated his blood fearing needle prick has now created one of the largest private blood donor networks in the country. More than 10,000 permanent blood donors of Rakt Archana set by Indore-based Ujjwal Lad are now just one call or a text message away from the patients in need.

The group claims to have donated 21,000 units of blood in the past 10 years.

Interestingly, they do not have a permanent blood bank. The network of donors is spread throughout the country and its volunteers reach the hospital for blood donation anywhere in the country as they get a message from their headquarters in Indore for donation of a particular blood group. On an average, the network donates 80-100 units everyday.

BCCL/Represenatational image

Interestingly, if you call lad for the first time on his cell phone after introduction the first thing he asks is your blood group. He claims he knows the blood group of every contact in his mobile phone. His cell phone＊s directory has their blood group suffixed to their names.

It all started in 2006 when Lad heard through Radio Mirchi that a nine-day old baby who was suffering from jaundice and admitted at Indore＊s Maharaja Yeshwantrao Hospital desperately needed O-ve blood, a rare blood group. His parents has tried all possible options but failed to find a donor.

※When I heard the announcement on the radio, I was sitting with a friend who is a medical graduate. Since my blood group is O-ve, he asked me to donate the blood. Initially, I was reluctant as I had never donated blood earlier because of the misplaced fear of pain. But imagining the suffering and helplessness of the family and the child, I persuaded myself and went to the hospital. But I was so scared that I changed my mind and refused to go ahead. The grandfather of the child was crying. He fell on my feet begging for life of the kid. His anguish and helplessness moved me and finally I decided to donate, no matter happens after that,§ Lad told Indiatimes.

Indiatimes/Tarique Anwar

The experience left a deep imprint on Lad and he decided to him to help countless others like the child in the future.

※That day I realised the value of blood donation,§ he said.

Lad recounted the incident to his colleagues the next day. ※They were all so moved by the incident that they decided to donate blood as and when the need arose. We exchanged information about our blood groups and decided to be available if any request for donors comes up in the future,§ said Lad.

Since the messaging application WhatsApp was not available at that time, we began keeping each other informed regarding the requests through text message.

※Initially, we had only eight members in our group of donors and all of them had already donated the blood within 15 days. The problem was once you donate blood, you cannot donate again for the next three months. Then we realised we needed more donors because the eight of us would not be able to do much,§ he said.

Apart from Lad, the core team of Rakt Archana comprised of Mohit Agarwal, Sandeep Pagaria, Vimal Sharma, Ravi Lad, Anurag Seth, Vikram Singh Bais and Sachin Jaiswal.

The group 每 said Lad 每 decided to launch an awareness campaign for which they needed a social media platform to do it free of cost.

They began on Orkut

※At that time social networking site Orkut was gaining popularity among the youth. We decided to take help of this opportunity. We began using it to make people aware about the benefits of blood donation, connect with more donors and arrange bloods needed,§ added Lad.

In this way, people came to know about Rakt Archana and it became popular. Those who wished to donate blood started contacting the core group of the organisation. This led to a rapid growth in the number of volunteers of the organisation. ※With the expansion of our team, more and more requests for blood started pouring in,§ he said.

Within three months, Rakt Archana had set in place procedures to ensure quick and efficient donation of blood and procedures that are followed till date.

※When we get a request for blood, the first thing we do is verify the request. If the request is genuine, a message with all the relevant information is created and circulated among all members. If any of our members is the right blood group and wants to donate, he informs us. We then inform the rest of the members, so there is no overlap. We also ask the donor to take a selfie of him donating blood. This helps us keep track of the dates on which a donor donates, since a person can only donate once in three months,§ Lad explains.

Indiatimes/Tarique Anwar

How Taking Selfies And Aggressive Use of Social Media Worked

Posting the selfies while donating blood further inspired others seeing it to come forward to donate blood to people in need.

※Large number of people started getting in touch with us on their own, wishing to donate blood. Majority of them wanted to set up a Rakt Archana wing in their area, leading to increase the presence of the network across the nation,§ said Lad.

Rakt Archana＊s operations got a further boost with the arrival of Facebook and Whatsapp in India. ※When we started, the only medium of communication available with us was SMS, which was limited to only those individuals who were on our contact list. But with the arrival of social media, we could reach out to an unlimited number of people. Social networking websites, especially Facebook, made us a pan India organisation,§ said Lad.

Indiatimes/Tarique Anwar

Huge Network Without Any Office, But No Wrong Doing

As people began asking Lad and his core team to set up Rakt Archana＊s wings in their areas, those interested to take the responsibilities were asked to submit a written application. They were asked to give a list of donors in their network. If everything works out, a Whatsapp group is created with the person and his donors under the overall supervision of the core team.

The expanded network is carefully overseen by Lad and his core team. ※We are part of every group we start so that their activities can be monitored to avoid any wrong doings. The entire operation is voluntary and monetary profit is involved in this. We ensure no one from Rakt Archana is donating blood money in exchange for money. Our donors are not allowed even to have a cup of tea offered by patients＊ families. We do not want anything in exchange for blood. We randomly call up the relatives of patients to verify whether the donation has been made with money changing hands,§ he explained.

Reuters/Represenatational image

Today, Rakt Archana has over 60 Whatsapp groups across the country, all dedicated to the cause of finding and donating blood. Every group has at least 200 donors. It is interesting to note here that the network does not have any office in any town and city across the country. They do not organise any blood donation camp or have a blood bank. As per the request, the donor gets directly in touch with the recipients and their family.

Rakt Archana 每 according to Lad 每 has completely covered Madhya Pradesh with 12 active groups in Indore alone. ※There is no town in the state where we cannot arrange for blood,§ Lad proudly claims.

In addition, he said, they have groups in Surat, Baroda, Ahmedabad, Pune, Mumbai, and many more places.

Rakt Archana can be contacted at these numbers 每 9753660006,9926834399, 9926166648. If you want to connect with the group, You can do it here.