Raghav Baldwa, who is an MBA dropout from T A Pai Management Institute, Manipal,watched his father donate blood since his childhood, the cause has always been close to Raghav Baldiwal’s (now 24) heart. He followed suit at the age of 17, but there was more that he wanted to achieve. This led to the formation of “Blood Sure“. Currently, Blood Sure has got close to 10,000 followers on Facebook and the 5,000 followers on Twitter. There are around 50 verified Twitter accounts which retweet the donation requests from the organisation. Around 75 percent of the requests that Blood Sure receives are taken care of online. He helped 14,000 people in getting blood through Facebook.
1.What inspired you to go on this heart warming Blood Donation journey?
The problem itself was my inspiration, I never faced any personal problem related to blood but witnessed that people often face it while arranging the right blood donor for their loved ones. Arranging a donor at last minute for any operation or surgery is a pain. People end up paying an amount as high as INR 4000 per pint of blood and up to INR 14000 for a single unit of platelets. Over 50% of India’s population is fit to donate blood but still we are short by 3 million units annually. If only 10% of potential donors donates blood once in 6 months, it’ll be sufficient for whole southeast Asia.
2.How exactly your journey began for this noble cause?
Well! The cause itself was so inspiring to start finding solutions for it. Even after reaching mars and beyond, still today blood cannot be manufactured, it only comes through when some noble people donate. People in India are not aware of this problem and they only come across it when they themselves experience it with their loved ones. So, eradicating this blood donor deficiency is very important.
4.How much do you think Social Media has helped you in achieving your goal?
Social media has helped a lot in reaching out to people for this cause. When it comes to spreading the donation request it helps me over 80% of the time. Over 85% of blood donation we receive are fulfilled via social media only. Social media is a huge platform which can be utilized efficiently if wanted.
5.Who is the person that helped you and who acted as a mentor on this mission?
Currently, I am the only founder. When I started I was supported strongly by my family and few friends. By far we have over 100 volunteers pan India, who help us on social media to spread the message about any donation request in their cities and they also help me collect donors database.
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6.What gave you an idea about starting “Blood Sure”?
Blood donor of Indore’ was formed in sept 2012 and I renamed it as “Blood Sure” in 2015. The reason behind it was, by early 2015 we started fulfilling a lot of pan-India blood request, so the name ‘blood donors of Indore’ often confused a lot of people, that it’s geographically restricted.
7.Which was the high point on this spree till now?
People are voluntarily coming up to help me on this journey when they read about “Blood Sure”, it’s a huge motivation for them. So, actual working of the plan for my country and humankind itself, is a high point I come across daily.
8.What is your final aim?
I want to eradicate blood shortage in India by 2025. There is a shortage of over three million pints in India every year. The number of casualties increases annually, especially during dengue or chikungunya outbreaks. The numbers are worse when it comes to the supply of blood platelets. This is a major crisis and thousands are dying every year because of it. Blood Sure wants to eliminate the myths surrounding blood donation and encourage Indians to donate more frequently. This will save countless innocent lives, and that should be a personal as well as a moral goal.
9.What are your views on the various disease that are spread all over India? Which do you think has affected most?
Diseases are natural, but precautions and better infrastructure facilities can help us eliminate the risk as much as possible. I believe recent chicken guinea and Dengue outbreaks are something we need to focus with some seriousness.
10.What was the reason that you found out behind fewer blood donors initially?
Lack of awareness, myths, misconceptions is the major one. India is living on the bed of misconception about the transmission of diseases which is the major hurdle in the proper functioning of the laid out plan. But, as people get aware they show a positive result.
Blood Sure’s Facebook Page
Raghav’s story by Your story
Raghav’s article by The Better India
