Be a Hero, Save Three Lives
Blood Drive at TappooCity Plaza, Suva, Fiji
The Youth of Sai Prema Foundation embarked on yet another journey to collect some much needed “liquid love” – Blood! The youth teamed up with the Fiji National Blood Services Department from the Ministry of Health and conducted a day long blood drive on two separate occasions on Saturday, May 4, 2019 and Saturday, May 18, 2019 at Tappoo City Plaza, one of the busiest localities in Suva.
This service activity was prompted in light of a recent plight by Ministry of Health and Fiji National Blood Service, highlighting shortage of blood at their blood bank in Suva. Therefore, considering the need of the hour, a blood collection drive was organised!
The day started early for the youth who took on the challenge of coordinating and hosting the blood drive. Keeping the norm in mind, the youth also arranged for fresh fruit, biscuits and fruit juice for the donors who were nourished upon completion of their blood donation. While the medical professionals from the Fiji National Blood Services conducted everything, from registration of patients to screening of the patients, to conducting iron tests and down to the overall blood extraction; the youth decided to make themselves useful and encouraged people to donate blood by highlighting its need and benefits, especially to hesitant first time donors walking the busy streets of Suva.
In addition, the youth took advantage of this opportunity and decided to have a chat with the donors and advise them of post-donation care such as drinking lots of water and having a proper meal, avoiding any physical exercise for the following 24 hours and so on. This was again acknowledged by the donors and the youth were commended for the “love and care” shown.
The “Be a Hero” central campaign successfully collected 43 pints of blood collectively on both the days. These 43 pints of “fresh blood” will be used to save at least 129 patients as just one pint can save up to three lives!
Overall, it was yet another opportunity to serve well, undertaken by the youth of Sai Prema Foundation and yet another community service that was offered at His Lotus Feet!
