The world today is moving fast towards technology and many of the human needs are fulfilled with its help. There have been innovations in every known field, whether it is Agriculture, Communication, Transport, Medicine, Energy or the like. The 21st century talks of engineered agriculture, advanced transportation, universal water, advanced manufacturing, nanomaterials, pervasive computing, distributed energy (DE), Personalized medicine so on and so forth. It is man who has earned the credit to all these so called miracles. But for a human being, there are still certain areas where he is solely dependent on the society at large.
Even today when a person meets with an accident or gets operated, he needs blood. In such situations, you need blood to be readily available. Generally, blood is stored in hospitals which has been collected from various donation drives. In India, the awareness for blood donation and its importance is yet to be fully absorbed as there are many myths surrounding it, such as
- There is limited blood in the body and it is unhealthy to donate it.
- Health deteriorates after donating blood.
- HIV or other infections can be contracted from donating blood.
- Giving blood is painful.
- Taking medication means that one cannot be a blood donor.
There needs to be a sustained effort towards community awareness and also, encourement for the common man to contribute towards society by donating blood. One such organisation which is actively involved in this initiative is Shree Aniruddha Upasana Foundation. Dr. Aniruddha D. Joshi, M.D. Medicine, the inspiration behind this organisation began the blood donation activity in the year 1999 in Mumbai. Slowly and steadily they started educating people about the dos and don’ts related to blood donation. Also, over a period of time, the organisation started organising camps in various districts of Maharashtra. Another distinguishing element of this organisation is that the blood banks which are invited for their camp, are Government blood banks registered under the State Blood Transfusion Council (SBTC). The motive behind it is that the blood which is donated, should reach the needy and poor.
One more interesting facet about them is that every year the foundation conducts a Mega Blood Donation camp wherein, around 33 various blood banks participate and around 5000 units of blood is collected in a day. Shree Aniruddha Upasana Foundation has worked out a software which assures that distribution of blood units is such that it is handed over to the participating blood banks according to their demand, ensuring that all the Blood Banks are catered to the optimum. 
The other advantage of this software is that the donor is directed to a particular bank where he can be immediately taken to donate blood. Thus, the waiting time of the donor for donation is reduced to bare minimum. State Blood Transfusion Council (SBTC) was so happy with SAUF, with its planning and execution of the Mega Blood Donation camp that they regularly refer it to many such blood donation organisers. One such camp where SBTC sought the expertise of SAUF was a camp arranged by the Shivsena, wherein they created a Guinness Book of World Records by collecting 25,000 bottles, inviting more than 100 blood banks.
This organisation has been successful to educate more and more people to overcome the fear and myths regarding blood donation over the years. This is evident from its statistical data of the past few years. Till the end of 2016, they had successfully organised around 852 blood donation camps, collecting a total of 1,17,138 blood bottles which is a massive number. It is really heartening to see such an activity being carried out which offers a great service to mankind.
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Mega Blood Donation Camp organised by Shree Aniruddha Upasana Foundation
