Friends2Support.org is the world's largest voluntary
blood donors online platform and a non-profit organization providing access to contact
blood donors online from its website and mobile applications.[1] Friends2Support (F2S) has over 400,000 people voluntarily registered as blood donors.[2][3]
Founding
Five friends; Shaik Shareef, Naveen Reddy, Eswar S, Phani Kethamakka and Murali Krishna, from
Narsaraopet,
Guntur District of
Andhra Pradesh inaugurated F2S on November 14, 2005, in
Hyderabad.[1][4] with the service of
only 100 voluntary blood donors. The founders are all
software engineers[1] employed in various countries.[5] Friends2Support was founded as an effort to tackle the problem of blood unavailability at the hospital.[6]
The five members became the first donors, after which others joined. They had to manage their IT jobs while spreading the idea. They mailed whoever they knew about the
website in their spare time, who in turn, spread it to other people. They held gatherings and approached people door-to-door.
F2S has conducted many events to promote their idea across the country including bike rallies, walks and signature campaigns.
Future plans include establishing a free toll-free number across the country in various languages concentrating on rural education and starting a book donation website.
Mobile apps
F2S has launched mobile apps for all mobile platforms (
Android,
Windows and
iPhone).
Serving the needy across
India, friends2support.org has been making the free
database of voluntary donors' contact information available 24X7 on all possible platforms leveraging the emerging technologies. They have launched the
GPS (Global Positioning System) based 'search for donor' in all these countries on its
mobile applications 'Apps' on iOS, Android and Windows phones. People wishing to register themselves as donors can do so from the Apps.
The website and mobile apps allow you to either register or call voluntary blood donors without third-party human interference and allow users to track their donation records.
Listed In The
Limca Book Of Records For Maintaining The Largest Database Of Voluntary Blood Donors.[10]
World Summit Youth Award (WSYA) recognized F2S as Top 5 Runner-Up for the contribution towards using
Internet and Mobiles to get Action on United Nations Millennium Development goals under the category Fight Hunger, Poverty & Disease.[11]
NASSCOM Foundation Social Innovation Honours shortlisted F2S for the innovative contribution to society (non-profit).[12]
Manthan Award 2007 was conferred during an International Conference on e-content and Sustainability event organised by the Digital Empowerment Foundation in association with the Department of Information Technology and
American India Foundation in
New Delhi on September 21 and 22.[13]