Close to one lakh young men and women will be mobilised by the Jana Vignana Vedika as part of its blood donation drive in Andhra Pradesh. Of these 30,000 will be selected on the basis of their blood group. They will then be divided into 100 groups of 300 volunteers each who will donate blood once in three months. This was disclosed by JVV state committee president V Krishna at the valedictory session of the two-day state-level workshop in Hyderabad on Sunday.

The Vedika will also conduct a district-level workshop to mobilise youth in September and by November testing will be done to identify those who will form part of the voluntary blood donation groups. Collection of blood will commence in January 2004.

Training in identification of blood group type, the need for voluntary blood donation and how to motivate people to donate blood was imparted to JVV activists throughout the state at the two-day state-level workshop that concluded on Sunday.

The JVV hopes to initiate youth over the age of 18 to become voluntary donors and help in bridging the gap between the demand and supply of blood in the state. The two-day state-level workshop was supported by the AP State AIDS Control Society and resource persons who trained the volunteers included APSACS joint Director Dr M V Ramana Rao, Indian Red Cross Society secretary Dr K Rajya Lakshmi and APSACS Deputy Director Dr T L N Prasad.