Federation of Voluntary Blood Donors Organisations, West Bengal is a unique organisation, quite different from the concept of known organisations generally found around. It is of federative character, a cooperative apex body of all the voluntary organisations associated with voluntary blood donation movement in the state of West Bengal.

It has its own ‘MOST’ — Mission of eradicating the demand and supply of blood by real voluntary donation of blood. Object to undertake whatever is necessary to achieve the Cherished goal. Strategy as the situation demand and Technique ever-innovative based on land and people around. In this slate of West Bengal, real organised voluntary blood donation movement was launched by Association of Voluntary Blood Donors, West Bengal (commonly known AVBD, WB) since its foundation in early 1980. Prior to formation of this organisation,. the blood transfusion service was in horrible shambles – only 2493 well meaning citizens came forward to donate blood voluntarily in the year l979 to cater to the then need of 1,50,000 units of blood. Due to scientific and systematic approach based on sustained “Education-Motivation- Donation- Recognition” (instead of the ineffective short cut method of “Publicity-Propaganda-Enticement”) to prospective donors and others related to blood transfusion service, many other
organisations at different levels of cities, towns, districts, sub-divisions have been inspired to join in this movement during the period of three decades. There are about 50 such organisations already working and some more are coming up. The present national scenario that West Bengal leads the country in the field of voluntary blood donation is not the result of the activities of AVBD, WB alone, but the credit owes to the collective efforts of all these community based voluntary organisations (i.e. CVO’s), all of which are independent autonomous societies. Prior to formation of this “Federation”, all these organisations realised that the thoughts and activities of all such organisations should have been similar in nature, if not identical. Hence, a “State-level Conference of Social Workers associated with voluntary Blood Donation Movement in West Bengal” was organised by AVBD, WB in 1987 when it was resolved that this Conference would have to be annual and all organisations would take up the responsibility of hosting the conference one by one in a very modest way. 

Thereafter, the conference is being held every year without any disruption. After a few conferences, it was felt that the desired interaction among the organisations was not being fully achieved. The reasons were many all such organisations arc independent autonomous societies, not dependent as branches or affiliated units of others, land and people around each of those are different, hence strategies and techniques ought to be different, two or three conference-days in a year are not sufficient for effective exchange of information and experiences, particularly when all are stricken with some problem or other due to the very bad shape of the blood transfusion service prevailing in the state. Here from emerged the necessity for formation of a Committee to establish coordination among all these organisations and to steer the movement throughout the year in unison.

As a result, a committee named “Samanwaya Committee” was formed in early 1998. The members to this Committee were organisations and not individuals. To avoid unwieldy character of the Committee, Members were only those organisations, who were experienced enough and in this case, the organisations, which had so far hosted the State Conferences or were known to host the future ones, were considered to be experienced enough as those were supposed to possess the scenario of the entire state: The Committee had only one chief functionary elected from amongst the members for a period of two years, designated as ‘Convener’. After working in this pattern for a decade, it was observed that this experiment could not achieve the cherished goal, the reasons being mainly due to various limitations of the Member Organisations and lack of command on those members. Hence, the necessity of bringing all the organisations under one umbrella was the dire need.

As a result, the apex organisation named as “Federation of Voluntary Blood Donors Organisations, West Bengal” emerged in June 2008 with formation of its nine-member executive. The members of this Federation are organisations and not individuals. Those organisations working consistently for at least three years in the areas of Education, Motivation and Blood Donation with a view to
recruit and retain non-remunerated voluntary blood donors and also to upkeep the voluntary workforce may become members termed as Member Organisation. Presently, there are 46 organisations as members of this Federation. 

The Executive Council of the Federation consists of nine elected member organisations each of which are represented by one of their nominated individuals. There being one President, one General Secretary, two Assistant Secretaries and one Treasurer as office bearers and four Members, the responsibilities of running the Federation is now not vested upon a single person, but are shared by many. The Federation operates from the office of the Secretary’s organisation for a particular tenure. The expenses, whatever little is incurred, is borne by the Member Organisations through subscriptions with provision for support from other sources in the community. The Executive Council meets regularly at least four times in a year, i.e. at an interval of not more than three months. Each meeting is held of course with due notice served by the General Secretary, at venue undertaken by any of the Member Organisations. It has been experienced even within this short span of time that it can still work democratically and enjoy confidence, trust, and love of the society at large. Formation of this organisation was not sporadic, but is dire need-based. The main objects of this Federation are : (1) to liaise among the various organisations engaged in voluntary blood donation movement in the state, (2) To help setting up new organisations for furtherance of the blood donation movement in the state, (3) To communicate with Government, appropriate authorities , corporate bodies and individuals for improvement of blood transfusion services in the state, (4) To assist and guide organisation(s) in smooth and effective conduction of Meetings, Seminars , Workshops, Conferences or the like related to blood donation movement in the state. (5) To promote educational and training programme for
generating awareness about the movement at all levels in the districts and / or sub-divisions of the state.

(6) To do all such other things complementary and/or supplementary to the objects of the Samanwaya Committee or are identical or conductive to the attainment of the objects. Keeping watchful eyes open to the objects, while carefully stepping into the prickly path, the achievements so far are no less sweet, delighting and encouraging. All the concerned organisations have come closer, new organisations are coming up, pooled knowledge and experiences are being enriched, district and sub- divisional organisations are being inspired to form Coordinating Committees at their respective levels and even are organising district level or zonal conferences are being well organised and meaningful, implementable resolutions in place of impracticable pious resolution are adopted and implemented within a set time-frame, government and/or other concerned authorities are paying due heed to the views and suggestions of voluntary organisations, media finds a safe place for acquiring correct information and so on. 

From all these saying, it may well be revealed that the real strength of the Federation is dependent not only on the formal or official binding but on deep moral introspection resulting in the unison of like-minded organisations. That is why it still effectively functions in a democratic way based on total voluntarism. It acts as a TEAM meaning Together Everyone Achieves More. Hence, it may be reiterated that it is unique in character and ideal for rendering meaningful service to the society as it is believed, “many bells ringing together make a joyous sound.”