October 1 was National Blood Donation Day. On the occasion, Facebook launched a new feature in India that would help people find blood donors easily. This initiative of the social media giant is meant to fight blood shortage in India.
The news of the drive was announced by Mark Zuckerberg on his page. His message read, “In an emergency, people often reach out to their community on Facebook — asking for donors, organizing donation groups and checking local blood banks. Every week across India, there are thousands of posts from people seeking blood donations. Like many countries, India doesn’t always have enough donors to provide everyone with reliable access to safe blood. It can be hard to find a donor or donate to someone outside your network. So we worked with non-profit organisations, blood banks, and donors to build a tool to make it easier to give blood. Donors can register on Facebook and get a notification if a person or an organisation nearby needs blood, and people who need donations can be connected to potential donors. The idea for this feature came out of a hackathon, and Hema Budaraju, one of our product managers, helped make it a reality. This issue is personal to Hema, whose father was diagnosed with cancer five years ago and lost so much blood during chemotherapy that he had to have a transfusion every day for a week. Hema had to reach out to friends and family to ask for donors and many people showed up once they realised it would help her dad. This is a constant reminder for Hema that people are always willing to help, they just need the tools and information to do so.”
He also thanked a lot of people who worked on this new service and said, “We now have those tools and hope they help people come together in ways that weren’t possible before.”
Facebook users can sign up as blood donors in a very simple process. One will need to submit information like their blood group and whether one has donated blood before. Facebook promises to keep the details private but one can choose to display a donor status on their timeline to motivate others.
There is also an option for those who don’t know their blood group.
The drive will connect donors with the ones in need of blood. Whenever someone makes a request for blood, the listed donors with same blood group and in nearby area will receive a notification. After reviewing the request, the donors will be able to contact the person who have made the request on messenger, whatsapp or phone call.
How to register as a ‘Blood Donor’ on Facebook
Click on the link or notification you see on Facebook. Another way to access it is by going to the feature from the post your friends shared. First an information page pops up. Click ‘Join Now’ and check your blood group if you know.
If you have donated blood before, then select ‘Yes’ in the next option and click ‘Submit’. You will be registered and you will see a confirmation page saying that Facebook will notify you when someone need help and respond if you are able to donate blood.
People in India can go to facebook.com/donatedblood to learn more and sign-up to be a blood donor.
