Ranchi, July 11: Pamphlets, banners and posters are passé, it’s one lakh messages now and counting.

Every drop of blood counts… make a difference by donating your blood and save a life (Jharkhand State Aids Control Society) — next time your phone beeps, it might be the state Aids control body trying to reach you with a message like these to make you aware about the importance of blood donations.

The Jharkhand State Aids Control Society, in a first-of-its-kind initiative, has tied up with telecom giant Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited to send bulk SMSes urging people to take part in blood donation camps and promote safe blood donation/transfusion habits. The mobile awareness campaign was kicked off last month.

State Aids control society and National Rural Health Mission director Aradhana Patnaik, confirming the developments to The Telegraph, said nearly one lakh messages had already been sent to residents across the state since June 14.

The SMS awareness campaign, if successful, would be extended to other service providers and awareness drives focused on community health services would be launched.

“If the response to this SMS campaign is healthy, then we plan to launch similar services for other health care schemes like family planning, institutionalised deliveries, HIV prevention and vaccination,” said Patnaik.

She added that the idea was to use mobile phones to reach out to as many people as possible, with special focus on youths for whom using mobile phones was a way of life.

Patnaik said she believed that the text messages would help in providing tips on HIV prevention to the masses and also give them updates about health camps that are to be held in the city.

“There are many people who might want to take part in a blood donation campaign but have no clue how to go about it. The SMS service will help such residents. It is a step towards providing better health service in the state capital,” said Patnaik.

Interestingly, the state has 23 national Aids control society blood banks, where the average blood collection through voluntary donations is way below 40 per cent.

The Jharkhand State Aids Control Society, however, hopes that the SMS campaign will help it achieve 50 per cent collection this year.

“We had a target of collecting 80,000 units last year. This year, we hope to collect 90,000 units through 650 camps across the state,” said Jharkhand State Aids Control Society official Julie Soke.