Thiruvananthapuram: Next time when you or your friends are in need for blood, you would not need to send those help seeking messages on social networks and wait in hope for the right person to contact you. Bridging the gap between the donors and seekers,
Trivandrum Indian, a city-based NGO and a social network community launched an app ‘Trivandrum Indian Blood Bank’ in Thiruvananthapuram last week.
“We had been constantly getting requests for information regarding
blood donors in the city and that is when we decided to run a poll on our page asking if people would find a blood bank app helpful. The feedback was overwhelming and we decided to go ahead with one,” said Sibi Rajan, founder of the Trivandrum Indian group.
The
Trivandrum Indian blood bank app has been hosted on SWAPP, which is a Platform App that can be downloaded for free from the Play Store or App Store.
The app allows one to either register as a donor or seek blood from the registered donors. Within the app, a person can go through the set of rules laid down before registering oneself as a donor.
“If you are seeking blood, you can sort with the blood type as per your need and also look for donors who are closer to you. One can even put a request for blood for a future event in case of a planned surgery. Once the donors are identified you can contact them directly,” said Ashwin Panicker, founder of SWAPP.
A
blood donation camp was also organized as part of the Blood Bank app launch where nearly 60 people donated blood. The app was launched by Thiruvananthapuram MP
Shashi Tharoor who welcomed the initiative and appealed the people who gathered for the event, to register as donors on the app.
MP Shashi Tharoor during the launch of the app on Friday