Information about the organization in general
Thalassemia is a genetic blood disorder in which there is a reduction in the rate of production of haemoglobin and thus causing anemia. Treatment for Thalassemia Major involves regular blood transfusions. Some patients may require a transfusion every three weeks and treatment is often a painful process. With proper care and treatment, a person with thalassemia can live near normal life.
Given our quest to do full justice to our principle of Giving Life A Better Chance, it was essential that we spent some time on balancing rapid growth with consolidation of existing work. We dedicated almost the whole of last year strengthening ourselves.
People who read scientific data know that often they come across an abstract of a scientific publication which looks interesting but they cannot read the full article because of a prohibitive fee. Published scientific research seems to be within reach only to those who are part of elite academic institutions and business.
Sankalp took birth in a hostel room - bringing to an end a tormenting helplessness which arose when a person lost his life waiting for blood in Bangalore. The young organisation took baby steps in the common spaces of the college premises after the regular college hours. Meetings happened under the trees and sometimes at the tea shops outside the nearby hospital where the incident had occurred that night.
On 21st May 2017 we also had the annual meeting of Sankalp’s advisory board. Mrs Jasmine Majethia, Dr Lawrence Faulkner, Dr Shankar, Mr S V Iyer, Mr J M Maheswariji and Mr Yogeshbhai Lakhani (special invitee) attended the meeting beside the board members of Sankalp.
As we stepped into our 15th year, we felt the need to commemorate the event with a small celebration to share the joy with the people involved with Sankalp in different capacities. The event was organized on the afternoon of 20th May 2017 at People Tree Hospital, Bangalore. In the morning the members of the executive committee of Sankalp met the members of the advisory board to chalk out the broad work strategies for the next year.
Time has flown by and we have entered the 15th year of operations. When we started off in 2003, little did we know what distance we would have walked. Sankalp has progressed from a truly voluntary organisation to something that today employs nearly a dozen people in powerful change making roles.
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Here are the events and updates from the month of March.
We have come a long way. Over the past 12 years, Sankalp has evolved from a group of college students toiling hard to ensure no one in their vicinity suffers due to shortage of blood into a structured organization working with experts and taking Karnataka towards 100% voluntary blood donation and a making the state thalassemia free. Over the past 12 years, the organization has conducted hundreds of blood donation drives, adhered to lakhs of blood requests and provided care and better management to hundreds of children suffering from Thalassemia.
With the onset of the new financial year, Sankalp Rakta Kranti Team looked to make a strong start with plenty of blood drives catering to the summer period. On the back of a year with close to 12,000 units collection having gone by, the team wanted to maintain the same momentum. In summary, 1055 units were collected in 13 drives. We had about 3% of donors having post donation complications and the percentage of deferrals for the month was 22.3.
