Dear Friend:

Two patients need blood in Mumbai every minute. Mumbai needs over one million units of blood every year, but has a shortfall of 400,000 units. With 16 million people in Mumbai, less than 5% of all eligible donors have actually donated blood, ever. Mumbai has the largest number of blood banks in India, yet most people do not show up at blood donation camps simply because of inconvenience or fear of needles. If you donate blood once every 90 days, between the age of 17 to 55, you alone can save over 400 lives.

Blood is needed by accident victims, organ transplant patients, cancer & heart patients, and those suffering from HIV, anemia, leukemia and other blood ailments. In an emergency situation, the blood used is always from the stock available on the shelves before the event occurs. Mumbai is no alien to natural or man-made calamities. Yet, most people step forward to donate only after an unfortunate tragedy has passed. Mumbai has some of the highest numbers of victims and patients in the country. Hospitals and blood banks across the city constantly need blood and platelets across all groups.

An hour of your time can save up to 3 lives. But that is not the only reason for you to give us that hour on Wednesday, July 1 at Rotary Service Center on Juhu Tara Road (near SNDT college). Here are four more:

* You would get a certificate that entitles you to a unit of blood from GD Goenka Blood Bank when in need
* You would get a wall clock telling your friends for years to come that you donated blood
* You would join actors Paresh Rawal and former miss India Swaroop Sampat in this initiative
* You would instantly lose 1KG of weight and gain a few inches of self-esteem

Juice and biscuits would be served, and if you call 922-222-1947 to RSVP and tell us the time that is convenient to you, we can arrange for your transportation as well. Please mark your attendance on the Facebook event. If you cannot make it to the event yourself for any reason, the least you can do is pass this along as an e-mail to your friends who can.

Here’s wishing you good health!

Rotary Club of Bombay West
Inner Wheel Club of Bombay West
Rotaract Club of NM College, Mithibai College, Andheri and Bombay West
Chaupaati Bazaar 922-222-1947

We are calling for volunteers (in Mumbai) to pledge blood donation. Chaupaati in association with the Rotary Club of Bombay (W) and Inner Wheel of Bombay (W) is organizing a Blood Donation and Collection Drive at the Rotary Service Center, Rotary Chowk, Juhu Tara Road, Santacruz (W) on the 1 July, 2009 (Wednesday).

All you have to do is, call us at 922-222-1947 to register and pledge blood donation. Give us your blood group, age, contact number and time when you can come to donate. Visit the camp at the Rotary Service Center, Rotary Chowk, Juhu Tara Road, Santacruz (W) on the 1st of July 2009 (Wednesday) to donate.

Chaupaati maintains an active database of all the volunteers (blood group, age, contact number). People in need of blood can call Chaupaati to instantly get contacts of matching donors through SMS.

By organizing this free service for the people of Mumbai today, we are doing our bit that takes us a step closer to our mission. And we sincerely request you to come forward to donate and encourage your friends and family also, to make this drive a success.

Call Chaupaati at 922-222-1947 now to pledge blood donation and be a part of it.

Event: Blood Donation and Collection Drive

Association: Rotary Club of Bombay (W) and Inner Wheel of Bombay (W)

Place: Rotary Service Center, Rotary Chowk, Juhu Tara Road

Date: 1 July 2009 (Wednesday)

Time: 8:30 AM onwards

To Register: Call 922-222-1947 or go to www.chaupaati.in/give

In our efforts to make accessible to our customers over different media, we have launched another service. Now you can search deals via SMS. Whatever be your requirement - “P4 computer” or an “Astrologer”, just SMS us at 922 222 1947, and we will connect you with suitable advertisers.

If you would like to offer any product or service on Chaupaati, including your household stuff, just send us an SMS and we will add the advertisement of your product / service on our system. Don’t forget - posting your first ad on Chaupaati is now free.

Looking for great deals on computers, mobiles, electronics, appliances, automobiles, furniture, real estate and repair services? Now you can search for deals in your locality; refine your search by budget, location, advertiser, and keywords; and make contact with the advertiser instantly by SMS. Discovering good & current deals in your neighbourhood was never so easy.

Whether you are a business or household, you can advertise your deals on Chaupaati and reach millions in Mumbai, especially those who are not online. You get charged only when you receive responses on your mobile by SMS. We let you try the service by posting your first ad for FREE. To continue advertising on Chaupaati after your trial, you can top-up your account by Rs.200 to Rs.20,000, and then post as many ads as you would like and for as long as you would like. Remember, you only get charged for responses.

If you are a business and would like to regularly advertise on Chaupaati, please select a subscription plan that best fits your requirement.

You may call 922-222-1947 between 8a to 10p, 365 days a year, and speak with a friendly Chaupaati representative in your favorite language to search & post deals, manage your account or purchase a subscription plan. Over 50,000 people from Mumbai use Chaupaati. We welcome you to join the community…

Do you have toys, clothes, school bags, stationery, food-grains, medicine, etc. that are lying around the house, that you probably do not have much use for? You are probably one of thousands of households in Mumbai that has stuff to give away but don’t know who cares or where and how to give.

Now you can give stuff away at Chaupaati.  We have registered several NGO’s that serve orphans and underprivileged children in Mumbai, and are seeking donations from you.

You can also call 922-222-1947 or email give@chaupaati.in (please mention your mobile number in email) with information about stuff that you would like to donate and we will directly connect you with volunteers in these NGO’s by SMS. You would directly interact with these volunteers to get the stuff picked up or dropped off at a location near you.

This costs you nothing more than a few minutes of your time and probably a short car ride, and can bring you more blessings than money can count. This is one of many free public services from Chaupaati where our service can be used to connect people in informal and unorganized sectors, and change lives with one little connection at a time.

There are ways we can improve, so please feel free to give us a piece of your mind. Give little things. Give lots of joy. Spread the word.

Chaupaati went live in Jun 2008, and since then tens of thousands of users have called us to buy and sell their stuff. In Jan 2009, we started publishing the Chaupaati deals online.

The Chaupaati team is happy to announce that you can now post your deals to Chaupaati online. We make sure that your deal is advertised not just through web but also through offline media like newspapers, television, outdoors, SMS and voice; so that you can get responses conveniently on your mobile.

The team’s also working to bring you a search and filter interface to better surf through the deals, adding more payment options, and other features our customers have requested - and we appreciate your patience while we do this. As always, we value your feedback a lot and are eager to hear from our customers. Let us know what you think!

Chaupaati team is happy to announce that the deals are now available online for browsing. If you like something you see, call 922-222-1947, mention the deal you like and receive sellers’ contact directly by SMS. We are working hard to bring you a search and browse interface to better surf through the deals and directly contact sellers without calling us. Thanks for waiting!

As always, we value your feedback a lot. Do give us a shout if you have suggestions, cribs, praise or anything else to say.

Direct numbers of Blood Banks at the designated hospitals in Mumbai:

Anviksha Blood Bank, Ghatkopar West - Ph. 26136290
Ashirwad Blood Bank, Dadar - Ph. 24154826
Disha Blood Bank, Thane - Ph. 25810770, Santosh
Sushrusha Hospital, Dadar - Ph. 24449161, 24469579, Ramesh
Bombay Hospital Trust Blood Bank, New Marine Lines - Ph. 22067676 Ext 215, Shubhangi Gaikwad
Borivali Blood Bank, Borivali (W) - Ph. 28010058, 28935219, Ms Bhandarkar
Breach Candy Hospital and Research Centre, Breach Candy - Ph. 23633651, 2368 5406 ,
BYL Nair Hospital, Mumbai Central - Ph. 23098150, 23081490-99 Ext 633, D’souza
Cama & Albless Hospital Blood Bank, Fort - Ph. 22611648, 22620388, Sutar
Cooper Hospital - Ph. 26207254 x263, Mugdha
Cumballa Hill Hospital Blood Bank, Cumballa Hill - Ph. 23803336, 23803674, Chaya
Disha, Thane - Ph. 25810770
D S Kotharia Hospital Blood Bank ,  - Ph. 22420957 , Ms. Dalal
ESIS Hospital, Worli - Ph. 24932390, 24933142, 24933143, Ext. 215, Ms. Mehta
Harkisandas Nurottamdas Hospital Blood Bank  - Ph. 23884015, 23855555, 23808932, Swati
Hinduja National Hospital & Medical Research, Mahim West - Ph. 24452222, 24451515, 24447752, Nikhil
Holy Spirit Hospital Blood Bank, Andheri (E) - Ph. 28248500, Minu
Indian Red Cross Soc. Blood Bank, Fort - Ph. 22663195, 22663560, Rajandra
INHS Ashwini Blood Bank, Colaba - Ph. 22151666, Ravindra Kumar
Jain Clinic Blood Bank, Girgaon - Ph. 23829308, 23884866, 23820909, Navita
JVP Blood Bank Arenja Arcade, Vashi - Ph. 27894490, 27890185, Mr. Manas
KJ Somaiya Blood Bank, Sion - Ph. 24090253, Akthar
Lilavati Hospital Blood Bank, Bandra (W) - Ph. 26455891 Ext. 2223 , Suwarna
Mumbai Hospital - Ph. 22067676 x216 (Pradeep, Shubhangi)
Nanavati Hospital Blood Bank, Vile Parle W - Ph. 26182262, 26182255 , Ms Bakshi Jhadhav
Navjeevan Blood Bank, Thane - Ph. 25400425, 25383162, Savitri.
Parsi Gen. Hospital Blood Bank  - Ph. 23633641 , Jyoti
Petit Parsee General Hospital Blood Bank, Cumballa Road - Ph. 23685350, Jyoti
Pooja Blood Bank, Mulund (W) - Ph. 25693688, Kashmira
Rashmi Blood Bank , Ghatkopar - Ph. 25135643, 25135267, Lavia
R N Cooper Municipal General Hospital Blood Bank , Juhu - Ph. 26207254,56,57, Ext. 263
Samarpan, Sarvidaya Hospital, Ghatkopar West - Ph. 25111313, 9421510390, 9225498570, Jai Sing Vishvakarma
Vaidya Blood Bank, Thane - Ph. 25380787, Mariamma
Sir JJ Groups of Hospitals Blood Bank , Byculla - Ph. 23739400, 23735555, Ext. 2248, Patil
St George Hospital - Ph. 22620244 or 22620240 x431, Ms. Kadam
Sushilaben R Mehta & Sir Kikabai P Mehta Cardiac Blood Bank  - Ph. 24035455-59, Karuna
Sushrusha, Dadar - Ph. 24449161
Tata Memorial Hospital Blood Bank, Parel - Ph. 24149750, 24161413, 24170000, 24127096, Ms Preeti
V N Desai Municipal General Hospital, Santacruz (E) - Ph. 26183018 Ext 143
Vaidya, Thane - Ph. 25380787

Other Blood bank numbers:
Blood banks - 1910
Indian Red Cross Society - 22663560

Note: All above numbers are verified as of Nov 30, 2008

Dear citizens:

A few thousand Mumbaikars have volunteered as blood donors on Chaupaati (922 222 1947) and have shared their blood group information with us. Families and hospitals in need, especially those looking for rare blood groups not readily available at blood banks, may call 922-222-1947 to directly connect with nearest donors of matching blood groups. We have notified blood banks at JJ, Mumbai, St George, Cooper and Nair hospitals over the phone, so they can tap into our local database to find donors when needed. Please help us spread the good word, both for volunteers and for those in need.

We are all terribly disturbed about the recent events in Mumbai and our hearts go out to all hostages, innocent bystanders, NSG officers, hotel employees, Mumbai police, hospital staff, media personnel and fellow Mumbaikars who have shown much selflessness and resilience in the face of adversity. Given the magnitude of these attacks, chances are that we all know someone who knows someone who is affected. Although the violence is not over yet, this is the time for citizens to be determined to minimize further losses and recover from what has already happened. Every drop counts.

Sincerely,

Chaupaati Bazaar team

Useful link: Mumbai Help

Chaupaati’s mission is to aggregate information of unorganized markets and connect Indian masses to it.

And while we strive to do this, we have been able to create a platform to collect information, sort it, store it, search through it, filter through it, and broadcast it to a targeted audience on request. This platform is the heart of Chaupaati’s service that went LIVE in June 2008 in Mumbai. Since then we have been able to connect thousands of people to buy or sell cars, computers, real estate, mobile phones; to rent homes and offices; and to scrap old stuff at home. We have been pleasantly surprised with the user adoption to various categories and service offerings.

And now we would want to use this platform for something beyond the realms of business.

Well, how many times have you come across chain emails and blanket SMSs sent out to large mailing lists, urgently asking for a particular blood group for someone in hospital? We believe such situations need more adept and efficient handling via a much broader information platform; and are thus initiating a free Blood Donor Information service. Through Chaupaati, people can directly connect with volunteers who have pledged blood donation - all with just one phone call!

We are calling for volunteers (in Mumbai currently) to pledge blood donation. Here is how you can help:

1. Call us at 9222221947 and pledge blood donation
2. Tell us your blood group, age and contact number
3. As and when a requirement comes up, we will send you an SMS with the patient’s contact number
4. We will also send your contact number to the patient
5. Speak to them, donate, smile

Chaupaati will maintain an active database of these volunteers (blood group, age, contact number). People in need of blood can call Chaupaati to instantly get contacts of matching donors through SMS. By organizing this free service for the people of Mumbai today, we are doing our bit that takes us a step closer to our mission.

Call Chaupaati at 9222221947 now to pledge blood donation and be a part of it.