I’ve never felt more stupid than I did today
Last year, someone I know was stuck on a hospital bed with severe bed sores, waiting for his surgery. The doctors gave only one condition; we had to find two blood donors. What’s worse, the surgeons wanted fresh donations.
It took almost two weeks to find.
The interesting thing was that the first person we found had already donated to the same person in the past.
Clearly, there was a problem finding donors. So we thought of the obvious thing; what if we could create a system where we could make volunteer donors within reach of people who need blood. In real time.
So Haemo happened. Or tried to happen.
The problem is, I can’t code to save my life. If you try to force me to write code with a gun to my head, the most you’ll get out of me is this;
<kuku kill me>
So with a small salary I was struggling to get by with, I tried to hire a developer. Problem after problem. Both of us were running in circles most of the time.
Bear in mind that the process is basically this:
Collect donor data→ Accept requests for blood →Connect donors with patients in real time.
This looks/sounds simple, but somehow, we managed to not get it done. In that time, I found out about Lifebank and Redbank who are also doing as much as they can to help with the blood problem too.
Between November last year and about a month ago, 9–5, brokeness, endless development problems and everything in between happened.
Last month, we started to pick up pace again, for two reasons:
- Our excuses were beginning to become irritating even to us
- The problem seemed to get more disturbing everyday. I’ll explain.
The two most popular type of tweets on Nigerian Twitter these days are:
i. I graduated with a degree in this and that. I need a job. Please RT. My helper might be on your TL.
ii. Someone needs O+ blood urgently in so-and-so hospital. Please RT. A donor might be on your TL.
Clearly, the blood problem didn’t go anywhere. In fact, 2 million blood donations are needed every year to solve this problem in Nigeria alone.
This morning while I was at work, a thought hit me so hard, it petrified me. A solution was right there all this time, free of charge, with zero server problems, or bugs;
An Online Form.
It can collect the data of volunteer donors, people who need blood can reach out to us, and even though the process would be manual, we could at least connect people, and help save lives.
All this while, the answer was right there, but somehow, I missed it. It sucked knowing I did. It still sucks.
But you know what they say, better later than never.
Right now, we begin collecting this data, starting with you.
Please fill this form below. It will only take about 3 minutes.
No, please, don’t leave.
If you’ve donated before, awesome. Join us. If you’ve never donated before, there’s no better time to start than now. Think of the fact that there’s no clear alternative to blood. Thousands of lives are lost every year because people can’t find blood in quick time. Let your fear disappear at the thought of lives being at stake.
Here’s how you can also help: Recommend this post. Share this post with everyone. Follow us on Twitter. Like us on Facebook. Email me. There is so much we can do together.
Quick Fact: One donation can save up to three lives.
Please, get at least three people to sign up. Here’s a link you can share with them (or even sign up from, just in case the one at the top didn’t respond). Call it a donation if you like.
Thank you very much.
P.S: That someone I spoke about at the beginning who inspired Haemo, he died a few months later of some other health complications unrelated to blood deficiency. I hope he’s in a good place.
Update: This is the next step
