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Volunteer groups introduce ‘Plasma premiere league’ to attract more donors
There is a desperate need for plasma and as people are appealing for plasma donors in an individual capacity, the Vande Mantaram Sanghtna and Yuva Phoenix Society have started a group programme called the “plasma premier league”, where they are reaching out to mandals, dhol-tasha pathaks (drum groups) and a larger group of volunteers who can help reach out to recently recovered Covid patients and appeal for donations
There is a desperate need for plasma and as people are appealing for plasma donors in an individual capacity, the Vande Mantaram Sanghtna and Yuva Phoenix Society have started a group programme called the “plasma premier league”, where they are reaching out to mandals, dhol-tasha pathaks (drum groups) and a larger group of volunteers who can help reach out to recently recovered Covid patients and appeal for donations.
They are also appealing to youth to donate blood before the vaccination drive for those above the age of 18 kicks off in the city.
“According to government guidelines, after vaccination, a person cannot donate blood for 28 days. What we need is to appeal to youth to donate blood before they are vaccinated,” said Dr Chinmay Umarji, who held a blood donation drive on Sunday.
Vaibhav Wagh, heading the Vande Mataram Sanghatana, said, “Everyday, we get as many as 100 phone calls asking for help with injections, beds and plasma donations to save the lives of friends and families. Since we can’t do much in terms of getting injections, we decided to look at plasma donation as a segment, where if we worked together as a group we could help get donations faster.”
He conceived the idea of the Plasma Premier League which kickstarted on April 14.
“The idea is to appeal to thousands of people to come forward and donate plasma, by offering prizes of ₹50,000, ₹30,000 and ₹20,000. We have 10 teams in Maharashtra participating and we have tied up with the PMC to help us connect with recovered patients,” said Wagh.
It is not easy to convince recovered patients to donate. Rohit Dhayarkar of Swaroop Vardini is one of the participants in the PlasmaPremier League. He said, “Each team is given a target of getting 100 donors to agree and donate. We have a list of people to call, but it is taking time to convince people to come forward and donate blood or plasma. Most often the patients are afraid of weakness or of contracting corona again. We are not giving up and will keep trying until we can encourage many of the recovered to donate.”
Another group, the Shiv Surya Dhol Tasha Pathak, has managed to get 25 people to donate. “We have played for around 150 mandals and are calling out to everyone for help. It is taking time to reach out and convince recovered patients, but once the gravity of the situation is explained, some are ready. They have to undergo an antibody test before they can donate,” said Ravindra Bodake.
