Mauritius is among the 189 countries that want to sensitise young people and create a new generation of blood donors. The world is celebrating Blood Donors Day today and this is why Nomad is collaborating with the Blood Donors Association (BDA) to attract more people to donate their blood. Ashvin Ujhoodha, web services executive at Nomad, is behind the creation of Nomad Lifekink, a new software to help the BDA manage its donors? list.

As from today, anyone interested in giving his/her blood will have the possibility of going on www.nomadlive.com and enrol as a donor by giving mainly contact details. ?At the moment, only 2% of the population are giving their blood. We tried to find a way of making it easy for people to become donors. The Internet may be one of them,? comments Ashvin.

As volunteers register as potential donors, their contact details are stored in the Lifelink database. The BDA then has the possibility of accessing this database with a password and contact donors if all conditions are fulfilled. Hence, the page is like an interface between the BDA and the public. ?Of course, the database is confidential except for the BDA staff who have the password,? Ashvin points out.

?Blood donation is a noble cause and we wanted to do something more than ask our staff to give blood on that particular day. This is how we took the initiative of offering them a tool to make their lives easier,? says Uma Jokhun, business development executive at Nomad, and who has coordinated the whole project since the beginning. ?As a non-governmental organisation (NGO), the BDA does not have much financial means. So far, they have been managing their database on paper. We hope this software will help them keep a database of rare blood groups especially.?

At a more ?official? level, the BDA in collaboration with the ministry of Health and Quality of life is organising a march from the Mauritius Sports Council, Sports Complex in Rose-Hill, to the Plaza as from 9.30 am. ?Balloons will be launched followed by a final debate competition and prizes will be awarded to those secondary schools which promote voluntary blood donations,? plans the BDA.