ZCZC
BSS-12
FACEBOOK-BLOOD-DONATION
Facebook makes blood donation easier
DHAKA, Jan 22, 2018 (BSS) -Facebook is set to launch a blood donation feature in Bangladesh tomorrow making the blood donation process easier for the people to get safe blood.
“Bangladesh, like many countries, has a shortage of safe blood that pushes patients and their families to a high-stress situation as they try to find blood donors on their own, including by reaching out to their network on Facebook,” Hema Budaraju, Product Lead, Health of facebook, told BSS today.
But Facebook can help them by finding ways to more efficiently bring blood donors, people and organizations together, she said.
“We have worked together with nonprofit organizations, health industry experts, potential donors and people who have used Facebook to find blood donors to ensure that this feature was designed to be useful to people,” she added.
To encourage the blood donors, the facebook will show a message in news feed or people can edit their profiles to sign up, Hema said, adding that all information of the participants will remain private and set to only me by default, but people can choose to share their donor status more widely.
This feature will be available on Android, iOS and www while Bangladeshi people can go to facebook.com/donateblood to learn more and sign up to be blood donor.
“We hope by raising awareness and growing the number of blood donors in Bangladesh, we can make it easier for people and organizations to give and receive blood in ways that weren’t possible before,” said Ritesh Mehta, South Asian Head of Programms of Facebook.
BSS/ASG/SRH/AU/15:25 hrs