Monday, April 21, 2008

Blood Donation Drive Update

A big thank you to all those who contributed blood to our blood donation drive held last week on Friday and Saturday.

As one of the donors commented, "it's clearly harder to get people to give their blood than to give their votes to you". ;-)

Despite giving out more than 1,000 leaflets, having the event listed in some of the Chinese press as well as sending out some 2,000 sms'es to residents, we barely managed to hit 25% of our original target of 300 bags of blood.

While there were clearly some shortcomings in the organisation and there are probably other avenues of publicity which we need to improve on (which we are already aware of), ideas of how to attract more donors are most welcome.

Maybe I should hold a ceramah in conjunction with a blood donation drive... ;-)

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Generally I think people are just plain lazy to drive to a place to donate blood. When my company ran a blood donation campaign, it was done at the lobby of the building and the turn out was spectacular. Even people from other companies in the same building came and donate blood - without much awareness or drive. That means, Malaysians are kind hearted soul but we are kind hearted only when it is convenient :P

Nine3 Nine3 said...

March my Club(non-profit organization) organize Blood Donation Drive for 2days at Ampang Tesco. It was Saturday and Sunday, the crowd was great(maybe payday )shopping at Tesco.
Two days we manage about 150 bags.We only targeted 50 bags per day as we did do any publicity announcement.

Most of the donors are shoppers, did not plan to donate bloods as they just happen passing by.
We realize the Malays are more keen on donating bloods.

Anonymous said...

Is it true I heard that we donate blood for free but the private hospitals charged the patients for the blood given? Can you clarify this?
If it is true I cannot see why the private hospitals make profit out of this 'donation'?

Anonymous said...

Discrimination69,

If i can provide my 2 cents worth, Malaysians have not reached the level of civic consciousness to drive to a place just to donate blood.

You have to do it where many people naturally congregate and are in no hurry. Donating blood takes some time.

Suggest you try to organise through churches, all temples and mosques and coincide with the days when the congregation are there naturally to fullfill their religious obligations.

You will also save on your flyers as churches and temples can always include the announcements in their weekly bulletin. I cant say for the mosques though, maybe someone can enlighten us whether mosques and sikh/hindu temples have weekly bulletins too.

Anonymous said...

Think many people still don't know the benefits of blood donation: to the donor & society at large. Not to mention, who can & who can't donate.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, strategic location is important for a blood donation campaign. I agree with nine3 that most first time donor did not think to donate in the first hand.

My friend and I went to the rukun tetangga last Friday around 3.08p.m to donate blood but the rukun tetangga was closed.

Anonymous said...

For the majority of people who are Chinese, donating blood is very difficult and they ask questions like, is it safe? Is it going to make me weak? typical questions because of ignorance.
But it is true about the safety and health aspect. Many of us are worried about this and therefore a good education drive can be beneficial.
Maybe I can write one for you on "why we should donate blood? What happens in the process? Blah blah blah... it will help folks to understand and they may do it . By the way I do donate blood regularly, am Chinese and also am female. It doesn't do me any harm at all. I also donate my organs for use in case I die, and I do have the fear ( confession) that I may be cut up before I really am dead...but I still did it because I believe many people need their chance to live...I want to be able to do that - give people a chance.

We should live unselfish lives - we look forward to such politicians in our midst.

Anonymous said...

That place in unsuitable lar...

You should know that the place is right beside a big rubbish dump. Somemore no aircond...keke

It seems to me that you mix up between a proper place for ceramah and a proper place for blood donation. People who goes to that area expects to buy something from the shops around or having lunch or breakfast. So where got mood to donate ler....

Anyway, I hope you guys did remind those who has the 1 litre dutch lady milk to finish it up soon as it will expire in 2 months time.

Better luck next time...

Anonymous said...

Cant you make the needle smaller? So gerun watching such big needle.......

Anonymous said...

Sorry I am afraid of needles.

GuaBohSong said...

Really love to donate blood however, my health condition doesn't allowed. I had donate blood few times before when I was still ok.

My experiances, nothing to be affraid of, it just feel like a small bite. Hope those healthy you out there can support blood donation, try to imagine, 1 pack for your blood can save a human live, is really a good deed for you.

Anonymous said...

Tony, don't worry. I think one of the factors is the timing/date of the donation drive. Every 1st May, there is a blood donation drive at Guan Ying Ting, PJ. They collect more than 1,000 blood packs every year. I believe some of the potential donors may have reserved their blood for 1st May. Do continue in organising such an event but please do it at least three months after 1st May as your target may be the same group of donors that donating coming 1sr may.

Charles said...

if every donation comes with a complimentary buffet voucher i bet the banks will be full in no time... that's malaysian culture

Anonymous said...

I learn about blood donation when i attend TARC for tertiary education back in 1990s. To my surprise TARC donation drive manage to get thousands blood packs in their annual blood donation campaign. The queue to the donation centre is like bee line like what we see in GSC or TGV today.

In building up to the actual blood donation week, posters are flooded in the whole campus. And there is education / awareness programmes what it involve in blood donation, its benefits, the stories how blood had save any individual (some are related to the former student there), etc etc.

In short, my own opinion is the campaign should be consist (annually or bi-annually) and education are the key.

Securing 75 blood pack for the 1st time. I say it's a 'bravo'. Keep up with the effort.