"Admiration
is not adorning the cutouts with blood or indulging in fights with
other fans. But being of help to the needy, living life again by
donating eyes after death is what I call genuine admiration of a
fan". These words delivered by Megastar himself to his fans
about five years back, have been brought to life today by Chiranjeevi
Charitable Trust in the form of Chiranjeevi Blood Bank and Chiranjeevi
Eye Bank which chiefly operate out of Hyderabad. Not just the government
hospitals but the so-called 'corporate' hospitals also are banking
on the Chiranjeevi Blood Bank for blood. By helping the poor and
the needy with free blood, Chiranjeevi Charitable Trust is indeed
considered 'a friend in need' by the needy.
Chiranjeevi
Charitable Trust, with a motto that - lack of appropriate blood
should not cost people their lives started Chiranjeevi Blood Bank
and Eye Bank on Oct 2, 1998 with Allu Aravind as the trustee and
25 enthusiastic persons as members. Since its inception, it has
been of great help to the poor. The State Government, having recognized
the efforts and noble intentions of the trust, allocated a major
chunk of land in the plush Jubilee Hills area for building a complex
with latest and advanced technologies for providing the necessary
processing techniques for the eye bank and blood bank. In this new
high tech building, the trust not only plans to stage the latest
and the best equipment to purify and test blood before it is certified
but also plans to offer various components of the blood such as
platelets, plasma, red blood corpuscles (RBC) to the needy patients
based on their necessities. The trust currently is located at Sri
Nagar colony and operates round the clock providing services 24/7.
Usually
blood banks, apart from demanding a healthy replacement blood, typically
charge about Rs.750 for blood. But Chiranjeevi Blood Bank neither
charges money for the blood nor demands for replacement blood. Attracted
by this, people using the services of the blood bank come forward,
prompted by the good will of the blood bank and also to contribute
their share of service to the community, to donate blood. The trust,
which currently gathers about 1000 units of blood per year and offers
it to the needy, free of cost, is all set to reach a goal of gathering
2000 units of blood by the next year.
Responding
with humanity to an article five years back in a newspaper about
the death of poor people due to the unavailability of blood, Chiranjeevi
voiced out for his fans to donate blood on his birthday. About 25,000
fans all over the state and approximately 2000 fans in Hyderabad
marched ahead for Chiranjeevi's call proving that they had genuine
admiration for their idol which shall make them do anything for
the society. That's how Chiranjeevi Charitable Trust came into existence
on the strong foundation of Chiranjeevi's good will and undying
support from his fans. Since then, every month about 600-800 people
have been donating blood in the trust's head quarters at Hyderabad.
Till now the trust has helped about 20,000 needy people by offering
blood free of cost.
Chiranjeevi
declared Saturday as the blood donation day to all his fans and
personally administers these activities every Saturday. To encourage
the activities of the blood bank, he not only praises and pleases
all the blood donors by calling himself their fan, for their noble
service but also poses for a photograph with them. The fact that
about 15-20% of the blood donors are ladies shows how rapidly the
trust's popularity is growing and how much people enjoy being a
part of such a noble trust.
Chiranjeevi
eye bank, so far has collected 275 pairs of eyes from the people.
With the help of Sarojini Devi Eye hospital, L V Prasad Eye Institute
and Maxi Vision, the trust has successfully helped about 540 blind
people gain sight. Chiranjeevi is creating awareness among the people
about the eye bank, its wants and services through advertisements
in the newspapers, television and movie theaters. Such noble deeds
by a humble, charismatic person and his fans and friends are definitely
praiseworthy.
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