With blood banks drying up during the pandemic, residents of New Town have come together to organise a series of blood donation camps in the residential complexes and blocks across the township.
With blood banks drying up during the pandemic, residents of New Town have come together to organise a series of blood donation camps in the residential complexes and blocks across the township.
The first of these took place at Greenwood Elements in Action Area IID last Saturday.
The proposal was mooted by members of two voluntary groups —Cenergy and New Town Forum and News (NTFN) — which have also provided food packets to the impoverished in association with the housing complexes. “We had gone to hand over dry rations to the Eco Park police station for distribution among the needy when I was given a proposal by Alaktika resident Arindam Dutta Chowdhury of Cenergy, asking if our complex could organise a camp. It took us 15 minutes to say yes,” said Arnab Bhowmik, secretary of Greenwood Elements Apartment Owners’ Association.
“When we approached North 24-Parganas District Hospital and Blood Bank in Barasat for permission we were told ours would be one of the first civilian camp to be held in North 24-Parganas after the lockdown,” smiled Samaresh Das of NTFN. There would be quite a few restrictions though, the topmost being a cap on the number of donors to avoid a large gathering.
“We take bookings for camps three months in advance. When the lockdown was announced, we were directed to cancel all the civilian bookings and attend only the camps organised by the police. It is only in the last week of April that we were granted permission to hold civilian camps as well in view of the rising scarcity of blood. But there could be no more than 30 donors,” said Sumitra Halder, camp-in-charge who came from the blood bank.
Bhowmik said initially they were worried about getting 30 donors. “Till yesterday morning, we had only 12 volunteers. The first lady who had registered, Khusboo Bihani, was turned down as her haemoglobin count was lower than required. But even then we reached the required number, including six spot registrations,” he added.
A total of 32 people gave blood including four members of the Mishra family. “I am a regular blood donor. When I saw all the precautions being taken, I felt confident about giving blood,” said Akash Mishra. His wife and two sons also donated blood.
The camp was held maintaining the health department’s Covid-19 protocol, with the ones collecting blood in personal protective equipment and every donor’s temperature being checked with a thermal gun. “The directive has also specified that everyone maintain social distance, wash hands, wear masks and use sanitisers,” Halder added.
“They took all the precautions. This is a great endeavour by residents. We have to remember that coronavirus will not make other diseases go away. So blood will still be needed,” said Hidco chief Debashis Sen, who was invited to attend the camp.
Next weekend, camps have been planned at Mallika Malancha and CE Block. “We hope to hold 25 such camps,” said Das.
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