| "Admiration 
              is not adorning the cutouts with blood or indulging in fights with 
              other fans. But being of help to the needy, living life again by 
              donating eyes after death is what I call genuine admiration of a 
              fan". These words delivered by Megastar himself to his fans 
              about five years back, have been brought to life today by Chiranjeevi 
              Charitable Trust in the form of Chiranjeevi Blood Bank and Chiranjeevi 
              Eye Bank which chiefly operate out of Hyderabad. Not just the government 
              hospitals but the so-called 'corporate' hospitals also are banking 
              on the Chiranjeevi Blood Bank for blood. By helping the poor and 
              the needy with free blood, Chiranjeevi Charitable Trust is indeed 
              considered 'a friend in need' by the needy. Chiranjeevi 
              Charitable Trust, with a motto that - lack of appropriate blood 
              should not cost people their lives started Chiranjeevi Blood Bank 
              and Eye Bank on Oct 2, 1998 with Allu Aravind as the trustee and 
              25 enthusiastic persons as members. Since its inception, it has 
              been of great help to the poor. The State Government, having recognized 
              the efforts and noble intentions of the trust, allocated a major 
              chunk of land in the plush Jubilee Hills area for building a complex 
              with latest and advanced technologies for providing the necessary 
              processing techniques for the eye bank and blood bank. In this new 
              high tech building, the trust not only plans to stage the latest 
              and the best equipment to purify and test blood before it is certified 
              but also plans to offer various components of the blood such as 
              platelets, plasma, red blood corpuscles (RBC) to the needy patients 
              based on their necessities. The trust currently is located at Sri 
              Nagar colony and operates round the clock providing services 24/7. Usually 
              blood banks, apart from demanding a healthy replacement blood, typically 
              charge about Rs.750 for blood. But Chiranjeevi Blood Bank neither 
              charges money for the blood nor demands for replacement blood. Attracted 
              by this, people using the services of the blood bank come forward, 
              prompted by the good will of the blood bank and also to contribute 
              their share of service to the community, to donate blood. The trust, 
              which currently gathers about 1000 units of blood per year and offers 
              it to the needy, free of cost, is all set to reach a goal of gathering 
              2000 units of blood by the next year. Responding 
              with humanity to an article five years back in a newspaper about 
              the death of poor people due to the unavailability of blood, Chiranjeevi 
              voiced out for his fans to donate blood on his birthday. About 25,000 
              fans all over the state and approximately 2000 fans in Hyderabad 
              marched ahead for Chiranjeevi's call proving that they had genuine 
              admiration for their idol which shall make them do anything for 
              the society. That's how Chiranjeevi Charitable Trust came into existence 
              on the strong foundation of Chiranjeevi's good will and undying 
              support from his fans. Since then, every month about 600-800 people 
              have been donating blood in the trust's head quarters at Hyderabad. 
              Till now the trust has helped about 20,000 needy people by offering 
              blood free of cost.  Chiranjeevi 
              declared Saturday as the blood donation day to all his fans and 
              personally administers these activities every Saturday. To encourage 
              the activities of the blood bank, he not only praises and pleases 
              all the blood donors by calling himself their fan, for their noble 
              service but also poses for a photograph with them. The fact that 
              about 15-20% of the blood donors are ladies shows how rapidly the 
              trust's popularity is growing and how much people enjoy being a 
              part of such a noble trust. Chiranjeevi 
              eye bank, so far has collected 275 pairs of eyes from the people. 
              With the help of Sarojini Devi Eye hospital, L V Prasad Eye Institute 
              and Maxi Vision, the trust has successfully helped about 540 blind 
              people gain sight. Chiranjeevi is creating awareness among the people 
              about the eye bank, its wants and services through advertisements 
              in the newspapers, television and movie theaters. Such noble deeds 
              by a humble, charismatic person and his fans and friends are definitely 
              praiseworthy. |