By june 2020 end, covid cases started to surge and need for plasma started growing. But everyone was so scared of this virus that no one wanted to even step out of the house, leave aside donating plasma, that too could only be donated by those who had recovered from this virus and they were not willing to take any second chance. So I started a group and got in contact with people/social volunteers from different districts. Focus was on creating plasma awareness before going for donations. We started with an online campaign and started a group in the name plasmadonorskashmir (twitter: @plasmadonorskas ). I used every social media platform to spread an awareness. Also I used to call around 80-100 recovered persons every day and educate them about plasma donations and then mark the blood groups along with contact no’s of those willing to donate. Same work was distributed to 2 other friends of mine. So we contacted around 150-200 people daily out if which just 15-20% were willing to donate and even this percentage was cut short because of the restriction of age and gender. So it was a complete day and night task where I received calls from patient’s families, doctors and even hospitals and then connected them with donors. And then kept the track of who they donated to so that they shall too be contacted after 28 days of recovery and they too shall donate. 

 

This helped a lot in smooth process of getting things done. Along with my group ( of around 180 members who all helped to spread list of available donors and at the same time got SOS messages delivered in the group ) I was able to help almost every person who called for help. 

 

After the successful plasma campaign and the end of the first wave we continued with blood donations in the group. As soon as the second wave started to make an impact. It was clear that this time focus was on oxygen because plasma donations were not talen as an option this time around in Kashmir. So we kept a close watch on how the things unfolded in the capital Delhi and before we were going to struck with same impact, we started making calls to local communities to keep atleast 3 oxygen cylinders in their possession. This call was then made my local Moulvi’s and Mufti’s and taken up by people. 

This helped not only reduce the impact of the second wave, but also helped people to be mentally prepared and satisfied that we were ready to deal with anything.