Blood Donation Drive At Batu Caves Attracts Hundreds Of Donors
A Blood Donation Drive Booth was set up in conjunction with Thaipusam last weekend.
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The Sathya Sai International Organisation of Malaysia (SSIOM) and the National Blood Bank (PDN) recently collaborated in a blood donation drive during the Thaipusam festival.
The donation drive ran for 46 hours starting from 4 February to 6 February. It started from 8 am on Saturday and ended at 2 pm on Monday with a break from 12 am to 8 am on Monday.
The drive was held opposite Batu Caves’ main entrance, below the overhead bridge of the MRR2.
According to Mohana Kumar, the coordinator of the Blood Donation Drive from SSIOM, the blood donation drive has been done for over 5 decades.
“At its peak, we collected 4,000+ pints of blood and the longest we went was 72 hours. Currently we are doing in the range of 36 hours to about 40 to 52 hours, depending on the day that Thaipusam falls on,” he told The Rakyat Post.
He also mentioned that more than 3,000 donors came to donate blood and 300 to 500 volunteers were engaged to help with the activity. These volunteers were from the SSIOM and the Malaysian Hindu Sangam.
“……at any point in time, there will be at least 50 volunteers to ensure the smooth flow of the programme for the donors,” he said.
From the activity in Batu Caves this year, they managed to collect 1,768 pints of blood.
This programme is also conducted in Penang, Ipoh, Melaka, Segamat and Kulim. Collectively, they managed to collect 2,557 pints of blood this year alone.
The donors have to go through 7 stations at the booth which starts with registration where a bunch of questions would be asked to make sure that the donors are fit to donate their blood. These questions are mainly about their health.
Next, they go through two check-ups by the doctors from PDN to ensure that their blood is fit to be drawn.
Once they are done with donating their blood, the donors are given refreshments and a certificate of appreciation.
A photo booth was also set up for the donors to take their pictures with the certificate as a memory and to post it on social media.
Jeeva, a 27-year-old customer service representative who came to donate blood for the first time, said that he came to do his part as a citizen to donate blood as it is always in need and he also said that the process was smooth and fast.
A volunteer from SSIOM, know as Priyenkasai said that this has become a routine for her. The 26-year-old process safety engineer said that she did it for self-fulfilment.
A medical professional from PDN who only wanted to be known as Dr Alia said the act of donating blood also has benefits to the donors.
She said that through donating blood, our body regenerates new blood cells and the risk of heart problems are reduced.
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