A Tribute to Chiranjeevi Charitable Trust - A Noble deed by Dr Chiranjeevi

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.