Blood donation feature now available to Bangladeshi Facebook users

Starting on 23 January, 2018, Bangladeshi users of Facebook are able to sign up for blood donation. When people are seeking blood for transfusion, they will be able to create special posts to spread the word. Facebook will automatically notify blood donors, who may be nearby, to help. Donors can then review the request and, if they wish to respond, contact the requester directly through a phone call.

Also, when organisations are hosting blood camp events in the country, they will be able to create an event on Facebook and nearby blood donors can be notified. Donors can review the event and indicate if they are going or interested.

This feature is meant to put donors and people seeking donations on the same platform. Instead of relying on posts on various groups and pages, the feature is ensuring easier connection for the seekers to reach volunteer donors.

To sign up, people can edit their profiles to let others know that they are willing to donate blood or visit www.facebook.com/donateblood.

To help encourage participation, a message is shown in the News Feed or people can edit their Profiles to sign up. All information will remain private and set to 'Only Me' by default, but users can choose to share their donor status more widely. This feature is being made available on Android, iOS and the world wide web.