Man On Mission To Walk 21,000 Km To Raise Awareness About Blood Donation Reaches Pune 

Batul Hakim

Pune, 1st September 2022: In India, more than 12,000 people are unable to receive blood every day, and as a result, more than three million people have died while waiting for blood.

With a major purpose, ‘Nobody should die waiting for blood in India’, Kiran Verma, who set out from Thiruvananthapuram on a 21,000 km walk across India to raise blood awareness on December 28, 2021 reached Pune and spoke to hundreds of people by propagating his important message of donating blood whenever needed in order to save lives.

Reaching out to the local authorities, district administration, taking permission to connect with schools, colleges and others, Verma’s personal experiences with blood donation motivated him to travel along this path. He attempted the longest blood awareness campaign ever attempted by a single person in world history, spanned over more than two years. He started this walk to urge people to donate blood so that hospitals and blood banks wouldn’t run out of supplies, pandemic or not.

“My whole mission behind this walk is to encourage at least 5 million people to donate blood, after which there won’t be even one death in India from the lack of blood. There should be people wanting to donate blood whenever it’s needed.’’

Verma has a stopover in Pune for a few days. He was speaking to a few Punekars while carrying a placard outside the Dagdusheth Ganpati Mandir where he was able to spread awareness while also inspiring the youth. Before arriving in Pune on August 25, he has already travelled to Ernakulam, Bengaluru, Madurai, Chennai, Goa, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Nagpur, and Nashik. Of his 21,000 km journey, Verma has already walked more than 6,800 km.

‘’From Pune, I am going to Solapur and after that Latur, Latur to Kalaburagi, and from there to Hyderabad, my target is to reach Hyderabad by end of September.’’

“I really feel that if we are unable to perform the most essential of tasks, such as giving blood, then as a community we have failed. All it takes on our end is a little time and dedication. I wanted to be able to be in contact with more people and tell them about the cause I support, so I chose to walk rather than doing anything else,” Verma added.

Verma is a Delhi based social worker who founded “Change With One Foundation” under which he runs two programs Simply Blood and Change With One Meal. 48 blood donation sites have been set up across the nation to support his walk, and more than 7239 units of blood have been collected as a result. In addition to the camps, more than 3000 individual blood donors have contributed their own blood to this campaign at various blood banks in India and abroad.