How many times have we considered giving blood but hesitated because of false beliefs we might have? Have heard of someone who is desperately in need of blood but isn’t receiving it in time? With an initiative that makes it incredibly simple and effective to discover a suitable donor and donate blood, such limitations could now be history. Learn about Friends2Support and their role in enabling this.
Blood is the most vital bodily fluid, while making up only 7% of the human body weight. In summary, blood maintains the body’s pH and temperature, transports oxygen and nutrients to tissues, eliminates CO2, urea, and other harmful substances, and more. Hundreds of people worldwide need blood every hour for a transfusion, surgery, or other medical operation. In terms of basic economics, there is a much greater demand for blood than there is supply from donors. Thus, the key to the answer is blood donation education, matching blood donors with recipients, and most importantly, saving lives. ‘Friends2support,’ also referred to as F2S, steps in to meet these needs.
What is Friends2Support?
Through its app, F2S is an organization that unites people in need of blood and voluntary blood donors on a shared platform. By using the internet, someone in need can look for a potential donor by entering their blood type, town, or city. Friends2Support was started on November 14, 2005 in Hyderabad by five friends who were born in Narsaraopet, Guntur District, Andhra Pradesh: Sheikh Shareef, Naveen Reddy, S. Koteshwara Rao, Phani Kethamakka, and Murali Krishna. Every one of the founders is a software engineer. What then motivated these IT experts to tackle these heinous issues? According to them, they retort with a few questions:
Have you ever seen a close friend or relative scrambling to find a donor when blood banks report that there are no more available units, the donors they have in mind are out of reach, and time is running out? Have you seen someone lose their life just because a donor was unavailable when it mattered most? Is there nothing that society as a whole can do to stop it? This idea served as the basis for F2S.
The goal of Friends2Support is to provide blood to every person in the nation by means of a user-friendly website and enthusiastic donors. Their motto is “Donate blood to save the most precious human life,” and they aspire to be “The hope of every Indian in search of a voluntary blood donor.”
How does F2S work?
F2S serves as a hub for good-hearted and caring individuals. There were just 200 donors at the beginning, but as time has gone on, the number of donors has increased to 100,000. The largest blood donor database in India is now F2S. They have started offering blood donors a free SMS service.
When a registered user registers to donate blood or requests a reset password, they will receive an SMS with their user name and password.
When they provide blood, they will receive an SMS thanking them.
When it has been three months since their last blood donation, they will receive a reminder text.
The easy-to-use F2S website allows blood donation requests to be made in a chronological order. It maintains an open database of blood donors that anybody can view. It includes information such as the blood group, location, name of donor, and mobile number. The “Report” button is provided next to each donor’s name if you identify someone who is either unavailable to donate or cannot be reached by phone. A thorough “State-District-Location” database covering about 8000 places in India has been compiled by F2S. Within hours, anyone can receive free volunteer blood donation. About 300 people donate blood using this website every day, according to F2S. To discourage calls, the donor’s name will be kept secret for the following ninety days after the blood donation. His name will appear in the search results automatically on the ninetieth day.
Future Plans
By utilizing technology and enhancing the platform’s mobility, F2S has introduced a number of mobile applications to offer intelligent methods for locating and/or signing up as blood donors. The creation of these applications has undoubtedly increased user penetration and efficiency. F2S intends to install a Global Positioning System (GPS) tracker in the future, which will locate the caller automatically and provide the caller with information about available blood donors and their current status. These details will be sent to the caller by volunteer call analysts in each state who possess extensive local knowledge.
Reaching Out
F2S is aware of the social stigmas associated with blood donation and has made a significant effort to increase public awareness of these issues. It has cooperated with many government hospitals and social organizations/associations in order to reach out to people in villages and cities. It has organized bike and cycle rallies in a number of towns and Tier-2 cities in an effort to draw attention. In several regions of India, it has held camps and sessions with various corporates in an effort to connect with office workers and their families. It took part in Joy of Giving Week in October of last year as well. Members and supporters of F2S have made considerable use of social media, with the primary goal always being to aid the impoverished and rural masses. Because of the aforementioned horrific efforts, they have witnessed donors traveling from Punjab to Kerala and people requesting assistance from Vadodara to Jabalpur.
Additionally, Friends2support strives to help academically gifted children who have given up on their studies due to unfavorable circumstances. Learn about its noteworthy efforts in rural Andhra Pradesh with marginalized families.
Mobile apps
F2S has released mobile applications for iPhone, Windows, and Android smartphones.
By utilising developing technology, friends2support.org has been providing a free database containing the contact details of voluntary donors to those in need throughout India, 24 hours a day. They have introduced the’search for donor’ feature on their mobile applications (‘Apps’) for iOS, Android, and Windows phones in all of these nations, utilizing the GPS (Global Positioning System). Through the Apps, anyone who wants to register as a donor can do so.
Users can trace their donation history and register or call willing blood donors without the intervention of third parties using the website and mobile apps.
