Once a social worker, always a social worker. So even though the lockdown brought Mahesh Talari back home to M Turkapally in Nalgonda district, he was still itching to serve society. Because, you see, the 28-year-old has worked for the NGO Shraddha Foundation in Hyderabad and has volunteered for UNICEF and WHO as well. He even has his own solid waste management start-up Green Again that works with the municipalities of Medchal and Yadgir to help them turn wet waste into organic compost and send dry waste to recycling units. With such a body of work behind him, how could a lockdown keep him down?
Blood donation for Thalassemia patients — that's the cause Mahesh, who pursued BEd from Madhava Institute of Advanced Study In Education, Bhongir, has dedicated himself to. So, after receiving the appropriate permissions, he organised his first blood donation camp in Bhongir on April 23. Little did he know that this was not just the start of something new but something huge as well. "Officials from the Thalassemia and Sickle Cell Society (TSCS) in Hyderabad called and requested us to conduct more camps," informs Mahesh. In light of this, he approached Cyberabad Police Commissioner VC Sajjanar for help and even organised over 30 camps in Cyberabad. TSCS has their own vehicle and they sent 20 technical lab professionals for the camps. Keeping with the current safety norms, social distancing is being maintained and the officials don PPE kits. The beds are well sanitised after each donation. They have collected over 2,000 units of blood so far.
"There is a general lack of awareness and then, there is the fact that people are generally not interested in donating blood. Couple this with the pandemic and these were the major challenges that we faced. But despite this, we were able to do a good job," says Mahesh proudly. He wishes to approach Rachakonda Police Commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat soon and ask for his continued support too. "The advantage of working with the police departments is that some have their own halls or they help us rent marriage halls," explains the youngster who is looking forward to conducting more and more such camps.
Mahesh has helped conduct blood donation camps in -
- Madhapur zone: Raidurgam, Miyapur, Kukatpally, KPHB, Bachupally and more
- Balanagar zone: Medchal, Shamirpet, Alwal, Balanagar, Jeedimetla and more
- Shamshabad zone: RGIA, Chevella, Shankarpally, Kothur, Kadthal and more
For more on him, check out facebook.com/mahesh.talari.549
