“Can you name 3 people who can donate blood to you right now – Same City & Same Blood Group?”
Most people can’t even name one…
The answer to this question, we normally don’t care to find out, until we realize its true importance when there are lives at stake, that too of our most loved ones & sometimes even us
Blood Network was conceptualized when one of my relative got dengue & needed urgent blood which was difficult to find. With no source in mind, we randomly started calling friends & family who we knew were in same city, but couldn’t get anyone. When that didn’t work, we started posting on social networking platforms like Facebook/Twitter hoping it to reach to right person
This made us realize that delays are inevitable because we realized we are so ‘unaware’. We reflected that a pizza reaches faster than most essential life savers like an ambulance, police. Why not Blood? With this thought process, we realized how critical Blood Network can be.
DISTURBING FACTS?
- There is a shortage of 1.1 Million units (9%) of Blood in India
(http://everylifecounts.ndtv.com/india-needs-blood-donors-4830)
- 50% of states are short of blood requirements. Bihar is 84% short, followed by Chhattisgarh (66%) and Arunachal Pradesh (64%)
(http://everylifecounts.ndtv.com/india-needs-blood-donors-4830)
- Between January 2011 and December 2015, 63 blood banks across Mumbai wasted 130,000 litres of blood
(http://www.asianage.com/mumbai/wastage-rife-63-mumbai-blood-banks-rti-040)
- India has 2,708 blood banks, but 81 districts still lack one.
(http://everylifecounts.ndtv.com/india-needs-blood-donors-4830)
- Blood banks require blood replacement to maintain inventory. Also blood donation drives lead to periodic shortages, especially during holiday seasons
(http://everylifecounts.ndtv.com/india-needs-blood-donors-4830)
- Paid Donations/Illegal Donations/Selling of Donated Blood are very prominent across the country. HIV through blood transfusions have increased by 10%
What is Blood Network?
Blood network is an initiative to create a network of friends and families to facilitate the prompt and easy reach of the ‘gift of life’ – Blood
Blood Network aims to cater these problems:
- Don’t know whom to contact in emergency – Randomly calling/messaging all friends & family
- Currently rely on social media/random calls to hope someone (even a stranger) will take all the trouble to reach out to you to help
- Wasting time & undue stress to find the donor at a life threatening situation, as blood banks seeks replacement before they can provide blood
How does Blood Network Work?
Ask yourself – “Do you know the blood group of the people you meet every day, your best friends and family?” – They will be the only ones you will call in an emergency
Blood Network connects Facebook users based on Blood Group so that during emergency, you can find blood donor within few seconds from your Facebook Friends or “Friends of Friends”.
Blood Network uses Facebook Network, to connect every individual with their Facebook Friend List so that you can directly reach out to your known friends & family who will understand the emergency & will act upon it immediately
When you search for particular blood group & location, Blood Network shows results based on your degree of friendship on Facebook network – Your Facebook Friends & Facebook users whom you know through Mutual Friends.
As per Facebook research, the degree of separation between 2 people has reduced from 6 to 3.57 (https://research.fb.com/three-and-a-half-degrees-of-separation/). So even if you don’t have any first degree friends matching your search criteria, you can search in donors outside your Facebook friend list & connect to eligible donor through help of Mutual Friends
How can I be part of Blood Network?
- Visit bloodnetwork.org & Click on LOGIN WITH FACEBOOK
- Go to the UPDATE YOUR PROFILE page. This is Mandatory to access FIND DONOR option. Fill Your details and Submit
- Go to FIND DONOR to search for particular blood group and location where you need it
- First Tab will show all your Facebook Friends (1st Degree Friends)
- Second Tab shows Users outside your Facebook Friend-list whom you can connect through mutual friends between yourself & potential donor
Blood Network – Vision
We aim at building a complete ecosystem around Safe Blood Donation & this is the first step towards it. We want to build this network at a Global level to ensure, from the Tier-1 cities to the deepest pocket in India, no one ever panics for Safe Blood.
Think of a world with no blood shortage, no HIV, Blood Diseases like thalassemia don’t have to worry about next source of blood & every individual never have to spend hours of torture thinking if they could save their loved ones or not
Website: www.bloodnetwork.org
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/bloodnetwork/
Link to Video How it Works: https://youtu.be/DpgHaReGY4o
Anuj Jain,
Team Blood Network