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 eight 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.
Responding with
humanity to an article eight 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 75,000 fans all
over the state and approximately 6000 fans in Hyderabad marched ahead
for Chiranjeevis call proving that they had genuine admiration for their
idol which shall make them do anything for the society. That is how
Chiranjeevi Charitable Trust came into existence on the strong
foundation of Chiranjeevis good will and undying support from his fans.
Since then, every month about 3000-5000 people have been donating blood
in the trust head quarters at Hyderabad. Till now the trust has helped
about 50,000 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.