Blood Helpline Karnataka plans blood donation camps in memory of Mohammed Fazil

23-year-old Mohammed Fazil, a member of BHK, was murdered in Surathkal on July 28

Blood Helpline Karnataka (BHK) will organise four blood donation camps on August 7 in the Dakshina Kannada district in memory of 23-year-old Mohammed Fazil, who was murdered in Surathkal on July 28.

The camps will be held at Puttur, Ullal, Ammunje and Ulaibettu.

“He was our member and he had donated blood 14 times during his life. In addition, he was also helping the forum to organise blood donation camps in various parts of Surathkal and other surrounding areas,” said organisation administrator Ifaz Bannur.

“Initially, we had planned to organise a grand event to mark the sixth anniversary of BHK. But, we decided to cancel the event following recent incidents of murders in the district, and instead, decided to organise a massive blood donation camp. We aim to collect more than 500 units of blood through the four camps to be held in the district on Sunday,” Ifaz informed DH.

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History of forum

BHK was launched on August 8, 2016 by a group of friends through a WhatsApp group with the theme ‘Let us become blood relatives’, to reach out to people in case there was a requirement for blood.

BHK was officially registered in 2017. Now, there are over 50 administrations functioning through 45 WhatsApp groups with over 5,000 volunteers.

The 50 administrations are 50 working members, who engage in organising blood donation camps in various parts of the district and also outside the district.

“We have also been serving in Saudi Arabia and UAE,” he said.

In addition, the forum has a wide-member base of more than 7,000 volunteers on Facebook.

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Over the past six years, BHK has organised 203 blood donation camps in Mangaluru, Sullia, Puttur, Belthangady, Moodbidri, Udupi, Chikkamagaluru, Manipal, Madikeri, Raichur, Kalaburagi, Mysuru, Vijayapura, Shivamogga, Hassan, and Bengaluru and has collected 11,612 units of blood so far.

Along with blood donation camps, the forum has 2,383 volunteers who directly visit the hospitals in case of emergencies to donate blood. During the Covid-19 pandemic, as many as 672 volunteers donated blood to the blood banks in the district, said Ifaz.

In fact, Fazil’s father Ummar Farooq, in his complaint to the police, had also informed how his son was living in harmony with all people in the region and had even donated blood several times in the past to save lives, irrespective of caste and religion.