With J&K recording a surge in COVID19 cases, three Kashmir youth have launched ‘plasmakashmir.com’, a website connecting COVID patients with donors.
The demand for plasma of recovered COVID19 patients has grown across J&K, as the authorities have been struggling to cater to the growing rush of the patients.
Syed Fahad, founder and lead programmer of the website said the idea struck him when he was added to an online group posting details about plasma needs across Kashmir.
“I realized that everyone is using his personal social media accounts and low key social media pages and groups to spread word about the plasma requirement. At a time when cases are nearing 20,000, there is a dire need of a single platform which can gather COVID patients and those who have recently recovered from this virus at one place. This is how the idea of plasmakashmir.com came into being,” said Fahad.
A B-tech student from NIT and hailing from South Kashmir’s Anantnag, Fahad started to look out for like-minded people with expertise in programming and IT field.
He said within few days, he got in touch with Hanan Raina and Immad Mir hailing from Pulwama and Srinagar respectively and figured out the website which was launched on Friday.
“We created the website focusing on the issue of plasma donations only. There are many platforms tracking COVID cases but not a single website that connects plasma donors with patients. Since high speed internet is down for a year now, we had to work a lot on our website to tide over the low speed issue by optimizing it so that it can work on the low speed internet,” he said.
“We have included simple GUI (Graphical User Interface) and ensured the security of the data shared on the website. One of our team members is entrusted with the job of security of website and other is responsible for its graphics,” said Fahad.
The trio said they realized that most of the COVID recovered patients do not come forward due to the stigma attached to it and due to fear of getting personal information in public domain. They said the website is designed in such a way that all the personal information is kept confidential.
“Once you log on to our website, you have to follow a three step process. First step is registration where both donors and patients submit their details which are kept private. Second step is verification where the donor and the patient are contacted by our team for verification over WhatsApp. Final step is connection where a patient is put in touch with donor,” they said.
They said in single day of the launch around 18 people registered as donors and patients on the website which is a good start.
Soon after the outbreak of COVID in March, many Kashmir youth despite impaired internet have been coming up with innovative ideas to help in fighting COVID.
Earlier many youngsters with IT expertise created online platforms to help in tracking COVID cases. Many youth also launched online platforms for free medical consultation.