Saturday, November 1, 2014

United in Blood

United in run, if that was the spirit of yesterday's 'Run for Unity' (could upload a post on it here: Link), united in blood was the phrase uttered by a young blood donor in a conversation soon after the donation.

There are series of activities going on in IIT Kharagpur campus to celebrate the birth anniversary of Sardar Ballabh Bhai Patel in these two days (31-10-2014 and 01-11-2014, FRI and SAT). Patel Hall of Residence that is named after Sardar Patel, besides other program arranged a blood donation camp today. There was another such camp organized by NCC at Technology Students Gymkhana. The target had been to collect 150 units from Patel Hall and 100 units from Gymkhana.

I may say that I had the opportunity of attending blood donation camps organized by NSS, NCC before. This time,wanted to spend more time in Patel Hall to see how it is organized when students of an undergraduate hall takes the lead. There were other reasons too but let it be left to guess work of the readers (Hint: Some connection with this Hall and...). In the morning, attended a training program on Self-defence organized by NSO Health and Fitness team. A post on this is uploaded a short while ago here (Link).

Coming back to how the blood donation camp went, if it looked more like a festival, we can leave it to visuals. The seven part video series mostly contains the blood donation camp activities at Patel Hall. At the end, had a brief visit to NCC organized camp at Gymkhana.

Part I of the video series shows the preparatory work done since the arrival of the blood bank team. This may give a feel of the start-up activities to would-be organizers of blood donation camps.


Part II shows how it get started by following up first few donors in the queue. Their and others' interview appears in Part VII of this series.


Part III shows the donation activities going on in full swing.


Part IV shows the continuous stream of donors and their enthusiasm and spirit, making it look more like a festival.


Part V shows the blood donation camp going on in parallel at Gymkhana premises and also a short take of Professor Lt. Col. Raju who was in lead of that camp.



Part VI shows a conversation with the organizing team of Patel Hall which is followed up by wardens speaking their mind. There is an indication of what we can expect in future. Feeling great!


Part VII shows what had been the motivation of some of the donors when I could get into a conversation with them soon after their donation of blood. This series would never be complete without listening to these young hearts. It is sure to serve as motivation to those who are yet come out of their inhibition in donating blood. One cannot but be moved by the great enthusiasm and spirit shown by them and many of them had been first time donors in these camps.


Some images of the blood donation:



















Finally, the smiles say it all - feel proud of them and all who came forward!