Friday, March 20, 2009

Friends To Support Organisation






Friends To Support Organisation - Our friendship is 3 years old
www.friends2support.org
-- A people's movement.

Come Join in the Cause to universalize FREE Blood Donors' Information

Launch of All-India F2S Bike Rally-2009
Somajiguda Press Club, Hyderabad, Saturday, March 21, 2009

Scarcity of voluntary blood donors is a common phenomenon in India with someone requiring blood every two seconds. Spreading awareness on need for donating blood voluntarily and to have a comprehensive `Registry' of Blood Donors is of prime importance today.

Secrecy with regard to contact information of Voluntary Blood Donors is doing a disservice to the humanity. To overcome this lacuna, we friends began this journey from Narsaraopet in Guntur district on November 14, 2005, by creating a website www.friends2support.org with a countrywide voluntary donors' search facility.

To list out names, contact information of willing donors in all 17 blood groups (including sub-groups) State-District and City wise, we organised several awareness programmes in various cities and towns of India with F2S volunteers actively campaigning. A journey with a motley crowd of 200 on the day of launch, we are more than 50,000 friends spread all over country ready to donate blood anytime/anywhere (in authorised blood banks only) during an emergency or a scheduled operation. Reliable information is our motto.

We have chosen to launch this all-India Bike Rally-2009 in Hyderabad is known for its spirit to help and large number of enthusiastic youth ready to take the plunge when called upon. To take this movement to every nook and corner of OUR country about 50 youth embarked on a Bike Rally on Saturday, March 21, carrying the flags and pamphlets of www.friends2support.org to make people understand utility of this `Free Information Service'.

Beginning their journey at Somajiguda Press Club, they fanned out into the colonies and busy junctions to spread the awareness on voluntary blood donation. This movement will be replicated in other parts of the country also in a phased manner with week-ends used for this purpose. Youth will begin their journey on Saturday mornings from heart of a major city and go to a nearby district headquarters or town to spread the message there and return to starting point on Sunday evenings, as part of their social commitment.

Guntur 10K Walk was the first major awareness programme organised in Guntur city on November 25, 2006, followed by a Signature Campaign launched by Women's Cricket Celebrity Mitali Raj at Somajiguda Press Club in Hyderabad on May 26, 2007. Same year in another 10K Walk was organised in Vijayawada on August 15, 2007. Bangalore volunteer group organised a programme at one of the major exhibitions by setting up a stall.

A documentary film `Pranadatha' in English and Telugu was produced in Guntur and put on the YouTube for everyone to understand the way in which the website could be used. A mega release function with live coverage from Radio and TV channels gave a boost. A Toll-free Telephonic Helpline 1051 was set up in Andhra Pradesh for two years and we are in the process of setting up an All-India telephonic helpline and Service on SMS platform very soon.

Indian Hockey Team Captain Mukesh Kumar and some film personalities were part of a 5K Walk on Necklace Road on November 11, 2007, in Hyderabad. We completed 3 years on November 14, 2008 and as part of that organised essay, elocution and painting competitions for college students on Acharya Nagarjuna University campus. Several awareness programmes for MBA, Pharmacy and Engineering students were organised on college campuses with active participation of students from East, West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur, Khammam, Prakasam and Kurnool districts of Andhra Pradesh.

Pune volunteers held a candle-light campaign and Creation of Friedns To Support banner on a Football ground with Rangoli. Special Cards were designed to help people maintain a personal record of their blood group and contact information of their friends/relative with same blood group on the reverse side. Come Let us Register on www.friends2support.org and help save three lives by donating once.

All major blood banks in the country today use www.friends2support.org to contact voluntary donors. As per the feedback we have received so far, 20,000 donations have been made by 50,000 registered donors saving that many lives.

Team Friends To Support Organisation


Sk. Shareef