DHARMAPURI: Offering first aid in the golden hour might not be enough to save lives if one fails to arrange the right blood group on time. Witnessing the hardship of people in finding blood donors within a limited time frame, a Dharmapuri native in his mid-20s decided to create an online portal to easily connect people with potential donors.
When Sathish Kumar Raja (36) founded the web page ‘My Dharmapuri’ in 2013, with the purpose of helping people in medical emergencies, there were merely five members, that too for blood donation purposes only. Now, a decade later, the group has expanded to 50 like-minded individuals, engaging in a variety of philanthropic activities including blood-donation, burial of dead bodies, feeding the poor, and more.
“In the initial days, when we received texts or calls through our social media pages seeking emergency blood, we used to tie up with other donor organisations in order to help people get the aid they needed. From there, we have come a long way now. So far, we have donated over 8,000 units of blood, buried around 84 dead bodies, and fed over 300 people every day (for more than 1,000 days continuously),” says a proud Sathish Kumar, who himself has donated blood 83 times.
For this benevolent soul, who also works as an assistant professor at a private college, service comes with its own ingrained challenges. For instance, Sathish recalls a recent incident wherein he had to arrange a donor with the rare ‘Bombay Blood’ for an anaemic woman. “We got the call from Dindigul at 6 am. Following this, we ran helter-skelter in search of a donor and finally found a person. Later, we had to wake the blood bank proprietor up at midnight to ensure the blood reaches the patient by 6 am the next day. These are the little things we do,” says Sathish, adding that they arrange blood for anaemic antenatal mothers, Thalassemia patients, and platelets for cancer patients.
The spectrum of ‘My Dharmapuri’ is not limited to blood donations, as the group has been actively involved in other services like taking care of the elderly and orphans, offering aid, including school accessories, to students of tribal hamlets, among others. They have also been conducting a food drive near the Dharmapuri MCH for the past 1,070 days.
Explaining the initiative, G Arunachalam (34), a member of ‘My Dharmapuri’ says, “It began during the pandemic, when numerous families stayed in the DMCH without proper food or water. You see, when one person of a family gets afflicted by the corona virus, the whole family suffers in many ways, and getting square meals daily was one of them. Realising this, we started a public funding programme ‘Pasikudha Vanaga Sapidunga’ under which we cooked and distributed food to over 300 people a day.”
Arunachalam adds, “During wedding season and auspicious days, we have provided up to 2,000 food packets. The highest number so far was on the consecration day of Ram Mandir, when we distributed more than 4,500 packets.”
Talking about their decision to bury bodies abandoned in mortuaries, another member Mohammed Jaffar (24) shares, “We began burying the orphaned dead during the pandemic. Now, nearly two years down the line, we have buried over 84 such bodies, most of which were accidents victims. When police fail to identify their kin, there will be no choice but to dispose of the bodies. We also perform the last rites for the deceased.”
Having bagged dozens of awards and accolades for their services, this team of dedicated individuals are now putting in efforts to buy an ambulance. “We hope to buy an ambulance to drop patients back home cost-free, once they finish treatment at the DMCH,” adds Sathish, with a sheen of hope in his eyes.
(Edited by Arya AJ)