While we once again prepare to join the rest of the world to commemorate World Blood Donor Day on June 14, the Blood Transfusion Unit (BTC) of the Seychelles Hospital has announced that the number of donations received last year went up by 15%.
“We had a total of 1,833 donations compared to 1,661 in 2014. Bravo!” Prosper Kinabo of the clinical laboratory services of the Health Care Agency (HCA) of the Ministry of Health has said.
On behalf of the HCA, Mr Kanabo expressed heartfelt gratitude to all blood drive sponsors and recruiters who volunteered their time to host blood drives and the communities that donated blood in 2015.
“A special note of appreciation to all those who volunteered their time and energy to coordinate and organise these blood drives and last but not least, a heartfelt ‘Thank you’ to you blood donors who helped sustain our blood bank supply,” said Mr Kinabo.
“We are reliant on the help of volunteer organisations and communities for their relentless efforts of recruiting blood donors. Thank you for taking out time from your busy schedule to become a valuable part of the small percentage of the world blood donors.
“There are others who are grateful that you helped them in their time of need. They are the people who were recipients of the blood you donated at various blood drives. These people walk among us and they do not know that you were the one who helped them when they were in need. They could be chemotherapy patients, expectant mothers, and people with blood disorders or iron deficiencies, who need transfusions on a regular basis, surgery patients or trauma victims. One thing that they all have in common is that they really needed blood available for them at their time of need.
“We salute the management of these organisations and communities. When your staff took some time out of their busy schedule to donate blood, it helped one of their neighbours, friends, family member, or perhaps, even you. Sometimes you may have to wait a little longer to donate, and sometimes it might have been a little inconvenient or uncomfortable, but for the time you spent, someone else reaped the benefit of this sacrifice.”
The theme for this year’s blood donation campaign is Blood connects us all. It focuses on thanking blood donors and highlights the dimension of sharing and connection between blood donors and patients. In addition, the slogan, ‘Share life, give blood’ has been adopted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to draw attention to the roles that voluntary donation systems play in encouraging people whose lives have been saved through blood donation, as a way of motivating regular blood donors to continue giving blood, and to motivate people in good health who have never given blood to begin doing so, particularly young people.
The HCA in collaboration with the World Health Organisation is organising a number of activities to commemorate this year’s Blood Donor Day. The main activity for this day will once again be the recognition ceremony for all regular blood donors. This is an annual activity that is organised to thank and reward the blood donors for their life saving gift. The ceremony will be held tomorrow, Saturday at the ICCS at 3pm and will be attended by the donors and other high level government officials and organisations that have been actively supporting blood donation initiatives in the country over the past years.
Source : Seychelles NATION