DPS students open their hearts for thalassemia patients

Bengaluru: Thirteen-year-old Shreya Adithya, a standard eighth student at DPS South, recently raised Rs 1,22,000 to help thalessemia patients who require blood transfusion. She was an enthusiastic participant in a campaign launched by crowdfunding platform Fueladream, which had approached DPS South to raise funds for thalassemia patients. 

The goal was to raise Rs 30 lakh for individuals with thalassemia. Thalassemia, which is a blood disorder, requires frequent blood transfusions for the entire life of the patients and costs a huge sum for the family.  

“At the school, we created awareness about the disorder and how difficult it is for the patients and their financial burden. We made presentations to explain it to the children and the response was good," explains Mr Ranganath Thota, founder of Fueladream.  

The campaign was a success and a massive sum of money was raised in a short span. 

The principal of DPS South, Manju Sharma, too never expected that such a huge sum could be raised in such short time.  Her students turned a tough task into an achievable goal. Close to 150 students from standards 8th, 9th and 11th participated in a campaign, 'Surviving Thalessemia one campaign at a time', with a goal of raising Rs 20,000 each, which helps 10 thalassemia patients, in 45 days. But within one week of the campaign, the students raised Rs 13 lakh and in two weeks, Rs 18 lakh.

“Each transfusion costs Rs 2,000 and with the goal of Rs 20,000, ten such patients can be helped. With that goal, we had approached the school. We spoke about the campaign and how it works," explains Mr Thota.  “We rolled out the campaign before Diwali with a message that students can gift a present like this for patients. The intention was not to make them feel pity, but to sow the seeds of compassion in them," the principal said, adding that the school has been participating in various other social service activities and raises funds for other NGOs, including the National Association for the Blind. “We are all born with an innate sense of moral responsibility towards our society. A strong urge to do well, coupled with an act of positivity, can sometimes have an enormous impact on our own self-worth. Students of DPS Bengaluru South, in collaboration with FuelADream, an online crowdfunding platform, initiated the endeavour to facilitate treatment and make a difference to patients suffering from thalassemia. 

They believe that their enterprise would catalyse a change and promul gate the fact that the world would be a much better place if we embrace empathy and showcase social commitment towards a worthy cause," said Ms Sharma. 

The initiative is in partnership with the Bangalore Medical Services Trust (BMST), established by the Rotary Club of Bangalore and TTK Group of Companies. BMST has been providing blood banking services to patients and hospitals all over Karnataka. 

Mr Thota said, “This is one of the best campaigns we have ever witnessed from students and just reinforces our belief how young minds can leverage technology. It’s a collaborative effort that students embark on and it requires handholding by parents to be successful. We are thrilled with the early outcome of this initiative." 

The objectives of the thalassemia control program are to improve the management of patients undergoing blood transfusions and to enable screening and genetic counselling for first and second-degree relatives of thalassemia patients.