Port Blair, July 1: Recognizing the noble act of a young island girl for her selfless act to save a precious life, Admiral DK Joshi, PVSM, AVSM, YSM, NM, VSM (Retd.), Hon’ble Lt Governor, A&N Islands and Vice Chairman, Islands Development Agency today awarded an ‘on the spot’ LG’s Commendation Certificate to Ms. Aksa Abraham. This is the fourth such commendation conferred by the Lt. Governor in the past four years.
Aksa Abraham, an ex-Carmelite is a 19 year old student of JNRM, pursuing her first year BA. She has a rare blood group (AB-ve) which was required for a critical case at GB Pant Hospital. When a call was made by the Friends 2 Support (Y2S) and YBS group to Aksa, with the encouragement of her father Ajai Kumar serving as Seaman in the Directorate of Shipping Services, she had readily agreed to donate her blood, compromising her slot for vaccination which was due on the day.
We had approached few other donors listed in our database before contacting Aksa, informed the F2S members. Unfortunately the donors weren’t able to make it for some reasons. This is when F2S and YBS tried to connect with Aksa, who without any second thought came forward to help a patient unknown to her.
During the preliminary investigation, it was detected that Aksa’s HB Count was not sufficient for donation and Aksa was taken for her first dose of vaccination by the volunteers. But then Aksa had decided to register herself with the F2S as a donor so that her blood may be utilized in future to save precious lives.
The stand taken by Aksa has been lauded by the Andaman & Nicobar Administration and the Islanders in general. Blood donation is a noble cause but it has been seen that even in this era, there are healthy people who hesitate to come forward for donation.
Considering the pandemic and the poor situation of GB Pant Hospital during the first wave, the District Administration led by the Dy. Commissioner, South Andaman, Shri Suneel Anchipaka and SDM Shri Hari Kallikat had taken various steps to encourage people to come forward for blood donation. To begin with, the officials themselves had volunteered to donate their blood. Unfortunately the DC South Andaman, Suneel Anchipaka could not donate because he was tested positive for Corona virus while serving the people of the district in difficult times but the SDM and others could donate to lead the campaign. Later with the initiative of Anchipaka and team, blood donation camps were organised at GB Pant Hospital and other places where youths were encouraged to come forward.
The pandemic situation was also a situation wherein the Blood Bank was in acute shortage with even zero units of the common blood group O+ve. The situation demanded an immediate encouragement to the donors which was made possible with the active support of the district administration. As many as four such camps were organised and around 200 units of blood was successfully collected for the Blood Bank.
“We at Friends to Support and YBS record our sincere gratitude to the Hon’ble Lt. Governor for having awarded On the Spot LG’s Commendation to Miss Aksa Abraham. We also appreciate and acknowledge the never ending proactive support from the DC South Andaman, Shri Suneel Anchipaka, his team of officers and the entire staff of the Blood Bank at GB Pant Hospital which has helped in reducing the shortage of blood in the bank”, said Shri Vinod from F2S. Team F2S has called upon the eligible donors to come forward for this noble cause, which not only saves precious lives but has manifold benefits associated for the donors. Let us pledge that not even a single life be lost due to non-availability of blood, Vinod said.
This noble act exhibited by Ms. Aksa is quite inspiring and sets an example to motivate many youths to extend their helping hands in times of need of community. The LG’s commendation certificate to Aksa Abraham was presented in the presence of Shri Kulanand Joshi, Secretary to LG, Shri Ram Niwas Sharma, Secretary (Health), Dr. Avijit Roy, Nodal Officer (COVID) and Dr. Rajeev Ghosh, In-charge (Vaccination).