Bikers For Good, a bikers club in Delhi has started India’s biggest blood donor database to help the Covid struggling nation. It formed a dedicated 24×7 Covid helpdesk on their website, where donors and patients from any part of the country can register to offer or request blood and plasma. The motorbike group was originally launched to change society’s negative perception of bikers.
The second wave of Covid left the Indian medical system overwhelmed and helpless. People were left on their own in a lack of necessary resources. The nation became dependent on community help. Social media platforms have suddenly become the medium for people with requests for blood and plasma donations. While these online communication mediums proved to be of great use during the pandemic, the information shared over there is mostly scattered and unorganised.
“There might be cases when you get a request that’s 10-days old. Maybe, by the time you received the message, the patient has already received help or even, sadly, passed away. Meanwhile, the patients’ family undergoes a lot of mental trauma trying to verify every lead themselves. So, to address these two problems, we have created simplified and organised the entire process of blood and plasma donation,” said Mohit Ahuja, founder, Bikers for Good.
The bikers’ group has partnered with Reckitt Benckiser (RB) to raise awareness about the need for blood donors during this pandemic. Ravi Bhatnagar, the Director of External Affairs & Partnerships at RB feels a personal connection with this initiative. “Last year, a Muslim family from Aligarh had reached out to me seeking plasma, just a few days after I had recovered from the virus. While I was able to donate, it was too little too late, and the patient died. Later, I found out they had approached many other probable donors before me, but had been turned away on religious and casteist grounds. I was shocked. Since then, I’ve wanted to do something to address this issue. This initiative by Bikers For Good provides a glimmer of hope,” expressed Bhatnagar.
The Bikers For Good’s Delhi chapter currently has 37 members. Together they have set up a makeshift call centre. They match blood donors with patients, amplify requests for medicines and medical equipment. Club member Gaurav Gambhir has also been riding to hospitals and Covid care centres in Noida. He tries to find out bed availability and the admission process in these places.
And it’s not just the Covid patients the club is concerned about. The help group acknowledges that non-Covid patients have suffered greatly ever since the pandemic started due to the overburdened healthcare system. They are facing difficulties in finding regular donors when everyone is focused on battling the coronavirus. However, Bharat Khandelwal and Deepanshu Bhardwaj of BFG have been doing their small part by donating blood for thalassemia patients.
Bikers For Good has been the flag bearer of community help and social responsibility for a long time, trying to remove the social stigma against motorbike riders. Other than building a well-connected blood donors’ database, they aware people about personal hygiene, work with differently-abled people and campaign for social issues, all while promoting road safety and traffic laws.
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