Indian diplomat's blood donor registry becomes UAE's first

An Indian diplomat is spearheading an initiative to make blood from rare groups accessible to those in need through a website, that has emerged as the UAE's first and biggest donor registry.
Tiju Thomas, Consul (Economic & Education, Press & Information), who practiced medicine prior to switching his career, discovered blood shortage as a major problem in the UAE, where nearly 42 per cent of the blood units collected is required by thalassaemia patients.
"There was also a need for rare blood groups but unlike in India where we have a lot of (donor) directories, such database was missing here," Thomas told PTI.

His website www.Blooddonors.Ae, that had a soft launch on World Blood Donor Day on June 14 was formally launched on June 21 to coincide with the International Day of Yoga. Thomas said within two days of the launch, the website received as many as 50,000 hits.
When asked how did he manage to come up with the donors' contact information to build his database, Thomas said he got in touch with some association groups who helped him and were enthusiastic with the whole concept.
So, a donor can register on the free user-friendly website and help the patients because "even if one life is saved through this, I think the idea wins", Thomas said.

However, to access donors' information, one does not need to register and can directly look up a particular donor's contact information and when he last donated. For emergency cases, such data is a great help as it provided instant access to a potential donor, nearest to one's home.

"This website is the first and the biggest blood donor directory in the UAE," he said, adding that some 1,250 donors have already registered in just over a month while 6,000 odd social workers have pledged their support.
Thomas said this is an effort to give back to the society as a gift from the Indian community to the UAE and aims at bridging gaps between communities.

"Blood is something universal and it can help people from all communities. We have mostly Indians who have registered as donors besides some Sri Lankans, few Bangladeshis and one Pakistani. And, while no local has registered as donor, I am sure there would be many who might have benefitted from donors.
"The next effort would be trying to make the local people more aware of it so that they come forward and register as donors as well," he added.
He said the site is one step away from bone marrow donations and hopes this will eventually happen in the near future besides a mobile app that can make reaching the donors even more easier.

The site has three tiers - first, for individual donors who can register; second, registrations from organisations, associations and large groups which can be contacted to organise instant blood donation drives in case of shortages and thirdly, the administration part.
He has been invited by countries like Ethiopia, Kenya, Bahrain and Kuwait to set up a similar facility.