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Blood Donation : A Call to Solidarity and Compassion
LUMEN
Community : Health
By
Ms Daisy Chia
From Bloody Tuesday to BLOODay . The name changed in 2016 but the intent remains the same - raising awareness about blood donation , encouraging students , staff , the SJI Old Boys Association and parents to donate and promoting a culture of regular donation among our youth .
( Creativity , Activity and Service ) - a core component of the IBDP and was fully run by the students . As the cohort size slowly increased from the initial 80 junior college students to about 575 students comprising both Year 5s and 6s annually , it was hoped that the number of donors would also correspondingly increase .
More than a decade ago , likely 18 years ago , in 2006 , the inaugural blood donation drive was held in SJI . The target group was mainly the secondary 4 students and a few secondary three scholars who met the minimum age requirement of 16 . It was heartening that during the early years , despite only being able to leverage one level of students and limited by the number of potential donors ( one had to meet the age requirement and additionally obtain the requisite consent ), we were able to collect a healthy number of whole blood units ( 1 unit of whole blood = 450 ml ).
Since 2013 , with SJI offering the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme ( IBDP ), Bloody Tuesday became an official CAS
This , however , has not been the case .
Each year , it has become increasingly challenging to encourage first time donors to brave the needle and sustain the culture of regular blood donation . Many factors contribute to the sometimes dispiriting response . The following is a variety of examples :
• Time
• Fear of the needle
• Lack of parental / guardian support
• Misconceptions about donating blood
• Fears of the aftereffects of donating blood
• Willing donors but they are on long term medication and / or have health issues or they have fine veins