IBD 2009 (Today) Web 2.0 Technology (You use it you maintain it)

IBD Jan 2008 (This version was SMS Enabled)

IBD 2006

IBD in 2005

IBD In 2001

Way back in 2000 IBD looked like this.

New SMS System on IBD

With Ramesh's experience of handling IBD for 10 days we realised our mistake of only sending SMS to the Donors . The patients would wait for eternity for a call from the Donors. What we decided to do when we received a request for blood was.

1. We would send an SMS alert to the Donor with the Patient Profile.
2. We would send an SMS alert to the Patient with the Donors Profile.

The patients relative would coordinate with the Donor and give us a feedback as to who had consented to donate blood and who had not. This would also help us in keeping our Database live. Meaning we would get a feedback about every donor, this would help us in maintaing a History about each donor.

www.indianblooddonors.com - Completely Revamped

I and Ramesh would talk for hours every week and plan out the new site. We wanted the new site to give complete privacy to the donors , we also wanted that the database should not be misued by unscrupolour elements. Ramesh put in a lot of effort to come up with the new site. Our new site was ready and we migrated to the new system on 11th of November 2005 midnight. We send out mailers to our 28500 donors asking them to migrate to the new system. We had almost scrapped the old site . We wanted the old donors to migrate to the new site. We did not know if the donors would take it well. We were in for a pleasant surprise , about 1000+ donors migrated to the new system by next day mornng. We were sure that our new system would work quite well.. But new challenges lay ahead....

The new site gave donors complete privacy. Database was not open where unscruplous elements could take a printout and misuse the information. The donor also had the choice of the Hospital/Blood Bank he wished to donte blood, preferably at a place which is close to his place of residence or work. The request for blood donation were routed through us. We would take the request, authenticate it and then send the SMS alerts to the Donors. We would send the request in the ratio of 1:3 meaning for every unit of blood needed we would send out 3 SMS alerts to the donors.

Our CEO's Uncle Needs Blood .

It was 6.30 in the evening and i had just reached home from office when my residential phone rang. The person on the other side identified himself as Mr Anand GM Operations Siticable. He said we are very sorry for not replying to you , but today we realise the important of you website http://www.indianblooddonors.com/ . Our CEOs uncle needs the blood O-ve in New Delhi . Please can you help us.

I immediately told him that i would give him a list of O-ve Donors in Delhi and he could contact them for help.

Imagine if a person of repute who had money power and can afford anything cant get blood for a near and dear , what must be happening to the common man, the people who are poor , ones who cant afford one square meal.

Mr Anand called us to confirm that the donors had agreed to donate blood and Siticable was ready to help us.

Letter to Siticable.

A Patient would come to our site looking for donors. What would happen even if we did not have donors on our site. Where would he go ? We started thinking what we would do.

I was in front of the TV and was watching Siticable. Suddenly i saw a Scroll on the network that a patient needed a Particular blood group. I got it.

Siticable a part of the Zee Group had their network in more than 80 cities in India. I wanted to do a tie up with them . It was simple. I would list the telephone number of all the Head Ends (Place from where the Signal Originates in a particular city).

Patients relatives who did not get donors on our site would just Call the Head End , he would put a scroll on the network and the patients would get the donors. This system was working well in Nagpur. But this was not organised and people did not know about it. I still tell people whom we cannot help to use this method to get donors.

I started writing letters to the CEO of Siticable. I would attach a Xerox copy of the press clippings and then send it to them by Speed Post. And then follow it by a call to them. I wrote to them 4 to 5 times followed up by calls. Every time i would get an answer that we are looking into the matter. I did not give up. I kept on trying.

I visited the Local Head End but the Owner nor the Manager did not have time for me, the Manager was busy playing a game , he did not have time to meet me . I was asked to leave . I felt humiliated. I was getting used to this type of humiliation.

Rs 1001/- Donation in my Letter Box

I used to come home for lunch. One day as i came home for lunch. I saw a letter in my Letter box. It was for me from New Delhi. I was wondering who would write to me from Delhi. It had a address of one of the Rooms in the Supreme Court in India from Mr Natarajan. In in was written.

Dear Mr Poacha,
I am sending you a small donation of Rs 1001/- for the good work being done by you for humanity.
Best Wishes
sd
Mr Natarajan.

There were tears in my eyes. I am very soft at heart. I kept looking at the cheque for a few days. And finally deposited it. I realised quite late that i should have had a copy of it.
Thank you Sir. You donation has helped saved many a lives.

Beta,yahi tumhara bank balance hai

Dr Nirmal Jaiswal had register on our site as a donor and as a Doctor . When we started our site we had a facility for Doctor to register on our site according to their specilisation. The Category "Critical Care Consultant " did not exist in our doctors registration format. Dr Jaiswal had asked us to add that category . I wanted to know what a Critical Care Consultant was.

So I went to meet Dr Nimal Jaiswal at the Hospital where he was working. Dr Nirmal Jaiswal took me to the ICCU and explained to me the work of a Critical Care Consultant.The Doctor then asked me to wait in a room for a few minutes, saying that there were some people who wanted to meet me. A nurse ushered in the grateful family of a man who needed eight units of blood for an emergency operation. The Blood Donors had come in through our site, thus helpling save a life.

With deepest gratitude the patients wife tried touching my feet and thanked me for the service. She then said "Beta yahi zindagi me tumhara Bank balance hai, Seva kar ke ashirwad pana, usse bada dhan koi nahi. (No reward in life is greater than the gratitude of your fellowmen for service rendered).

This was another turning point in my life and IBD. I was more determined now to make it a succes.

Financial Crunch .

In a span of almost 1 year we had put in Rs 60,000 to start and run the site. Every month I was looking at huge telephone bills . In those days we had dial up connections. When we used to connect to the net we had to pay the Phone Bills as well as Internet usage bills.

I had already paid 2 installments of Hosting Bills and I looking as to where i would bring the money to pay my next Hosting Bill. How do i pay for my telephone bill ?

Coming from a middle class family and a government job i did not have a lot of saving. I had put in all i had into the site. I was afraid of telling Fermin my wife that i would withdraw money from my Provident fund.

I did not know how but i had to carry on. I was in a complete Financial mess. Thank to Fermins backing and my Mothers word "Jiska koi nahi uska Khuda hai Yaro" "When there is nobody to help you God is there" .

Blood Grouping and Registration Camp.

We were contacted by a local club after they read about us in the Local News Paper. They wanted to create an awareness about the site in the city by organising a Blood Group and Registration Camp. Their club had a few doctors. They booked a few internet cafes in Nagpur. The would check the Blood Group of any person coming in the Cafe. They would tell him / her their blood group and ask them to register on the site.

This concept did not work as quite a number of donors refused to donate blood , as they were forcibly asked to register on the site by the club member.

This was one of the many lessons we learnt in our journey . That Donors should not register on the site for the sake of registering , but they should register only if they have to wish to donate blood .

www.Indianblooddonors.com is born

We did not not know head nor tail about making a website . Or the work that goes into making one. I did a little bit of research by reading some magazines like Chip , Dataquest.

Then i contacted a friend of my brother . Mr Cyrus Major was working in an IT Company. I asked him if he would develop a website for me. I explained to him what i wanted. He said that as the site was for a good cause , he would make it for Rs 15,000 .

We had to now book a domain. I started searching for a name. We wanted a name which would identify with the people of India. We decided to name the site http://www.indianblooddonors.com/ . I was told to book the domain on http://www.networksolutions.com/ . The domain was available but to register it we were required to pay by Credit Card. I did not have one. I request my cousin sister in Canada Mrs Armaity Bhatena nee Bamji to book the Domain . Our Domain was registered on 27th October 1999.

We now needed a host where our website could be hosted. I was told to host the site at http://www.interland.com/ . They had only one plan which we could afford. 250 MB with SQL server for 3 month the charges were Rs 10,000 /- . We booked the hosting.

We now needed a computer at home from where we could monitor the site , reply to mails etc. We started searching for a second hand computer , searching for "SALE" ad in the news paper. We got a second hand computer a PII for Rs 12,500 /- .

In January 2000 our website was ready. We needed to develop a logo for our website. I requested another friend of mine Mr Sohrab Kanga who was in the Advertising Business to make our logo, develop a poster and make an Advertisement for the Launch. I had to shell out another Rs 10,000 /-.

Fermin's Treatment at Vaunshdhara

My Wife Fermin was undergoing her infertility treatment at Vaunshdhara Nursing Home (An Infertility clicnic) . After the loss of our first child , we decided to go in for infertility treatment at the only infertility clinic at Nagpur. We started the treatment but after a few month, we were broken , exausted mentally and financially.

We decided that we would something which would help people. At the back of our minds the incident of 2 patients dying for want of blood were also there. We decided that we would do something about it.

The Eureka Moment.

1999 was the year of the dotcom era. Everybody and anybody was launching a website everyday. I was just beginning to use the internet to send mails to my cousin in Canada. In those days we had to pay Rs 100/- per hour for internet access from a cafe. One day I was checking my mails on www.hotmail.com. And suddenly I realised that I would make a similar similar platform and would use the power of the internet where i would bring the Patient and the Donor together.

I would make a website which would be a link between a patient and the donors. I call it the "Eureka" moment.

Iron Butterfly - Welder dies for want of blood.

Fast forward to 1999. I wanted to buy some furniture for my house. Fermin, my better half, and I had visited a shop "Iron Butterfly" to buy a sofa set. On our earlier visit we could not meet the owner of the shop. On our third visit my wife insisted that I call him on his mobile and ask him to meet us at the showroom. I called up Mr Firoze Shapurji on his cell. He said he can't meet me that day as he was busy searching for a unit of Blood of the Group "O-ve" for a welder who works in his workshop. I immediately told him that I could help him as I was a regular blood donor since my college days and had donated quite a few units of blood during my NCC days and had quite a few voluntory blood donation cards with me. I could exchange a card in any of the blood banks for a unit of blood.

But that was not to be. I visited about 3-4 blood banks in Nagpur but could not get a single unit of blood. Anyhow Mr Shapurji who is quite a well known personality in Nagpur found a donor for the patient. But the patient needed a lot of transfusion. He passed away after 2 days. When I came to know about it. I was quite disturbed.

This incident got me thinking as to what must be happening to patients who go from one city to another city for treatment, where they have no one to help them. What must be happening to patients who suffer from cancer and need a lot of blood transfusion.What must be happening to children who suffer from sickle cell and thallesemia and who need frequent blood transfusions every month.

I told my wife that we had to do something about this. A solution has to be found to solve this problem. But how it could be done we did not know. We resolved that we would surely do something.......

This Doctor has killed my wife !

It was the month of September 1994, my grandmother had a fall and went into coma. She was admitted into Indira Gandhi Medical College, Nagpur. One day at about 3.30 in the early morning, there was a huge commotion in the female ward. Relatives of a patient were bashing up the resident doctor in the ward. On enquiring from one of them he told me "he has killed my wife". I asked the doctor as to what had happened. He told me that he had asked the patients relatives to arrange for 2 units of blood as the lady's Heamoglobin count was very low. They could not arrange for donors and hence the transfusion could not be done and the patient passed away due to a cardiac arrest. This incident left a huge impact on me.

My Grandmother passed away on 24th September 1994.