Big rush to donate blood

MORE than 6 million people have signed up as blood donors on Facebook’s “blood donations feature” in India.

Launched last October, this initiative has become the largest online blood registry in the country, a company executive said recently.

“We are part of the team at Facebook that is focused on building safe and supportive communities. We saw a lot of activity on the platform where people sought help regarding blood donation. This was our motivation to launch the initiative,” Hema Budaraju, the product manager at Health at Facebook told IANS.

Facebook organised its Legendary Blood Donation Drive event with non-profit NTR Trust in Hyderabad last Thursday.

“Our research suggested that when people have better information and tools, they are more willing to donate blood – and it is easier for people who need blood to find donors,” Budaraju added.

Since the launch of the feature, Indians have used it to post thousands of requests for blood donation on Facebook and the social media giant witnessed a lot of people finding at least one donor using the feature.

NTR Trust joined hands with Facebook to help bridge the gap between blood donors and patients and hosted a drive, which included more than 250 blood camps across the country.

Budaraju said blood banks and non-profits across the country were now using this feature to help raise awareness of voluntary blood donation camps. – IANS