Blood camps to honour Mahammed Fazil in Karnataka

MANGALURU: To honour the memory of the slain Mahammed Fazil, who donated blood 14 times in the course of his life, a forum will hold four donation camps in four places across Dakshina Kannada district soon.
Blood Helpline Karnataka (BHK), which has been involved in organising donation camps for the last six years, is holding camps in Ullal, Ammunje, Ulaibettu and Puttur on Sunday.
Fazil, 23, was one of three people killed following the sudden eruption of violence in Dakshina Kannada recently.
Administrator of the organisation, Ifaz Bannur, told TOI that Fazil had been an active member of BHK. "We decided to mark the sixth anniversary of our organisation by holding a donation camp in memory of Fazil, who was hacked to death by fanatics. Officially registered in 2017, we have more than 50 administrators, all of whom are seeking voluntary donors on WhatsApp groups. In this, they are being assisted by 5,000 volunteers. On Facebook, we have 7,000 members. So far, we have already organised 203 blood donation camps in Mangaluru, Sullia, Puttur, Belthangady, Manipal, Udupi, Madikeri, Chikkamagaluru, Raichur, Kalaburagi, Vijayapura, Shivamogga, Hassan and Bengaluru."
"In the past six years, we have collected 11,612 units of blood. We have also been carrying out our mission in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates," he said.
BHK also dispatches its volunteers - 2,383, to be precise - to hospitals to donate blood. "As many as 672 of our volunteers donated blood at hospitals following the outbreak of Covid-19," Ifaz said.
Mohammed Musthafa, an advisor to BHK, said the forum had decided to organise a big event to celebrate its sixth anniversary to divert attention from the recent violence in the region. "We have decided to organise the camps as a tribute to Fazil, who was an active volunteer for BHK," he said.