Friends2support

Friends2Support.org

Company type	Non-Profit Voluntary Organization
Area served	India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Malaysia, Yemen and Oman
Website	http://www.friends2support.org

Friends2Support.org is the world's largest voluntary blood donors online platform and a non-profit organization providing access to contact blood donors online from its website and mobile applications. Friends2Support (F2S) has over 400,000 people voluntarily registered as blood donors.

Founding

Five friends; Shaik Shareef, Naveen Reddy, Eswar S, Phani Kethamakka and Murali Krishna, from Narsaraopet, Guntur District of Andhra Pradesh inaugurated F2S on November 14, 2005, in Hyderabad. with the service of only 100 voluntary blood donors. The founders are all software engineers employed in various countries. Friends2Support was founded as an effort to tackle the problem of blood unavailability at the hospital.

The five members became the first donors, after which others joined. They had to manage their IT jobs while spreading the idea. They mailed whoever they knew about the website in their spare time, who in turn, spread it to other people. They held gatherings and approached people door-to-door.

F2S has conducted many events to promote their idea across the country including bike rallies, walks and signature campaigns.

Future plans include establishing a free toll-free number across the country in various languages concentrating on rural education and starting a book donation website.

Mobile apps

F2S has launched mobile apps for all mobile platforms (Android, Windows and iPhone).

Serving the needy across India, friends2support.org has been making the free database of voluntary donors' contact information available 24X7 on all possible platforms leveraging the emerging technologies. They have launched the GPS (Global Positioning System) based 'search for donor' in all these countries on its mobile applications 'Apps' on iOS, Android and Windows phones. People wishing to register themselves as donors can do so from the Apps.

The website and mobile apps allow you to either register or call voluntary blood donors without third-party human interference and allow users to track their donation records.

Achievements

• Digital Trailblazer award
• Award of Excellence 2015 from the Ministry of Health of India, June 14, 2015
• United Nations World Summit Youth Award
• Heroes of Hyderabad Award to founder Shareef from Radio City 91.1 FM
• Real Hero Award to founder Shareef
• Listed In The Limca Book Of Records For Maintaining The Largest Database Of Voluntary Blood Donors.
• World Summit Youth Award (WSYA) recognized F2S as Top 5 Runner-Up for the contribution towards using Internet and Mobiles to get Action on United Nations Millennium Development goals under the category Fight Hunger, Poverty & Disease.
• NASSCOM Foundation Social Innovation Honours shortlisted F2S for the innovative contribution to society (non-profit).
• Manthan Award 2007 was conferred during an International Conference on e-content and Sustainability event organised by the Digital Empowerment Foundation in association with the Department of Information Technology and American India Foundation in New Delhi on September 21 and 22.

References

• "An app to save lives". The Hindu (Press release). 2013-11-09. Retrieved 2013-11-09.
• "Here comes the heroes". The Hindu (Press release). 2015-08-15. Retrieved 2015-08-15.
• "Log on to find a blood donor". The Hindu (Press release). 2006-01-21. Archived from the original on 2007-10-29. Retrieved 2009-07-01.
• "Hyderabad techies help war-torn Yemen's blood donation drive". The Hindu (Press release). 2015-07-16. Retrieved 2015-07-16.
• "'Manthan Award 2007' for Narsaraopet website". The Hindu (Press release). 2007-09-25. Archived from the original on 2007-10-14. Retrieved 2009-07-01.
• Shareef, Shaik. "People Behind : Founders". Retrieved 2009-07-01.
• "Blood donation: trickle turns into a flow". The Hindu (Press release). 2007-05-27. Archived from the original on 2007-06-30. Retrieved 2009-07-01.
• "Overwhelming response to Guntur 10K Walk". The Hindu (Press release). 2006-11-26. Archived from the original on 2012-11-04. Retrieved 2009-07-01.
• "Terror attacks find place on canvas". The Hindu (Press release). 2008-12-03. Archived from the original on 2008-12-06. Retrieved 2009-07-01.
• "Render social service, cultivate scientific outlook, says DRM". The Hindu (Press release). 2008-11-07. Archived from the original on 2010-08-05. Retrieved 2009-07-01.
• WSYA, Winners 2009. "WSYA Winners 2009". Retrieved 2009-07-01.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
• NASSCOM, Foundation Social Innovation Honours. "List of Nominees". Archived from the original on 2009-05-11. Retrieved 2009-07-01.
• Limca Book Of Records, Entry (2012-02-14). "Blood donors' website enters Limca Book of Records". The Hindu. Chennai, India. Retrieved 2012-02-14.
• Blood brothers1, Blood brothers1 (2012-07-20). "Blood brothers1". The Hindu. Chennai, India. Retrieved 2012-09-07.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
• Blood brothers2, Blood brothers2 (2012-07-20). "Blood brothers2". The Hindu. Chennai, India. Retrieved 2012-09-07.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
• Support in the hour of need, Blood Donors' club. "Blood Donors' club: Support in the hour of need". Archived from the original on August 26, 2012. Retrieved 2012-09-07.
• Youth, Encourage. "Encourage the Youth by Telugu news paper". Retrieved 2012-09-07.