Recently, I was given the opportunity to do what I love the most to organise a Team Red training for students who were planning a blood donation camp in their campus at J.S.S.K.H. Kabbur Institute Of Engineering, Dharwad . Team Red is a team of volunteers who shoulder the responsibility to being in awareness and education in their campus and assist in the smooth execution of a blood donation drive. The passion, enthusiasm and eagerness of young people often matches that we find in our co-volunteers, one more reason why we love this activity.
Of-course we had a great training session with rapt attention of the volunteers for well over 50 minutes. Of-course they committed to organising a fantastic blood donation drive. However, such training sessions are instrumental in fighting the problem of blood shortage at a whole new level. We talked a lot about eligibility for blood donation, the process involved, the need to donate blood and a whole lot of other topics about blood donation. But we also talked about what to do if you have low haemoglobin. We also spoke about the problem of chronic and persistent anaemia, especially in young women and discussed easy modifications we could bring into our diet to improve the haemoglobin levels and the iron stores in the body.
A roomful of educated girls in their teenage seemed to me as the best audience to discuss this topic with. Shortage of blood contributes significantly to the high maternal mortality rates, especially outside large cities in India. Sensitization to the cause of voluntary blood donation also enables sensitization to fight anemia.While we strive to increase voluntary blood donation to close the gap, we must make conscious and strategic effort to plug the gap by reducing the demand. An easy and achievable way to reduce demand for blood is to fight anaemia. The synergetic delivery of these two messages the one of donating blood, and that of working towards reducing the demand for blood, was a refreshing experience.
Of-course we had a great training session with rapt attention of the volunteers for well over 50 minutes. Of-course they committed to organising a fantastic blood donation drive. However, such training sessions are instrumental in fighting the problem of blood shortage at a whole new level. We talked a lot about eligibility for blood donation, the process involved, the need to donate blood and a whole lot of other topics about blood donation. But we also talked about what to do if you have low haemoglobin. We also spoke about the problem of chronic and persistent anaemia, especially in young women and discussed easy modifications we could bring into our diet to improve the haemoglobin levels and the iron stores in the body.
A roomful of educated girls in their teenage seemed to me as the best audience to discuss this topic with. Shortage of blood contributes significantly to the high maternal mortality rates, especially outside large cities in India. Sensitization to the cause of voluntary blood donation also enables sensitization to fight anemia.While we strive to increase voluntary blood donation to close the gap, we must make conscious and strategic effort to plug the gap by reducing the demand. An easy and achievable way to reduce demand for blood is to fight anaemia. The synergetic delivery of these two messages the one of donating blood, and that of working towards reducing the demand for blood, was a refreshing experience.Patrika Edition
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