Tuesday, November 30, 2010

INDONESIAN RED CROSS GOES TO CAMPUS FOR MORE BLOOD by Fardah

      Jakarta, Nov 30, 2010 (ANTARA) - After targeting shoppers, the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) is now going to campuses to collect more fresh blood donations from university students.
      PMI Chief Jusuf Kalla and Rector of Trisakti University Prof. Dr. Thoby Mutis inaugurated a blood donation outlet at the university`s campus in West Jakarta, Tuesday.
       It is the second PMI`s blood donation outlet set up at a university campus, as the first one was inaugurated at the Hasanuddin University`s campus in Makassar, South Sulawesi, several months ago.

       "This is for the first time I am donating my blood. I hope that more students will donate their blood to help others," Lika, a student of the University of Trisakti, said on the occasion.
       Around one hundred students lined up to donate blood on the occasion. They simply had to fill in blood donation forms and get their blood, blood pressure and hemoglobin checked first.
       Jusuf M Kalla called on the younger generation to donate blood and even to make the activity part of their life style.
       "We target young people because the quality of their blood is still good, and healthy. We also want to tell the younger generation that donating blood should become part of their life style," Kalla said here Tuesday.
        He hoped the university students wuld be more than willing to donate blood as it was now easier and closer to do that thanks to the establishment of the outlet.
        "The PMI is inviting university students to make donating blood part of their life style, as the quality of their blood was still good," PMI Chief Jusuf Kalla said.
       The cooperation between PMI dan universities could also be used as an indication that university students are clean from HIV/AIDS and illicit drugs, according to Kalla.

PMI has so far set up five blood donation outlets at shopping malls in several cities, namely at Senayan Mall and Tanah Abang (Jakarta), Metropolitan Mall (Bekasi, West Java), Tunjungan Plaza Mall (Surabaya, East Java), and Mari Plaza (Makassar).

Jakarta and its surroundings need around 1,000 pouches of blood every day, while national demand reaches 4.8 million pouches annually, according to Kalla, former vice president.

"Ideally, the national blood stock should be around two percent of the total population, namely 4.8 million poaches of blood. And the PMI has so far been able to collect 1.9 million poaches, so there is still a shortage of about three million poaches of blood," he said.

According to Kalla, the more advanced a nation, the percentage of blood demand is also higher.

The PMI has launched a "4X4 Program", meaning that PMI plans collect four million poaches of blood for four day stocks.

"Last year, there were three million poaches of blood, this year hopefully it could increase 25 percent to around 3.6 million and next year it will be four million poaches of blood," Kalla said.

Last July 2010, when inaugurating a blood donation Unit outlet at Tanah Abang`s Block A Wholesale Center, in Central Jakarta, Kalla said the newly-inaugurated outlet was aimed at bringing donating blood closer to the public so that it could be part of their life style.

The inauguration was held in the wake of `Ramadhan` (fasting month) because during the month the number of people donating their blood usually decrease significantly.

CEO of Tanah Abang`s Block A Wholesale Center Radiza Djan said the public access to donating blood would be easier and more convenient with the setting up of the new outlet at the Tanah Abang mall.

"Tanah Abang is a potential location to attract blood donors as some 80,000 to 100,000 people visit the market every day," Djan said.

The outlet operates for eight hours daily, with a target of having at least 50 donors everyday.

Around two week later, the PMI chief officially opened similar outlets respectively at Ratu Indah Mall and the campus of Hasanuddin University in Makassar city, South Sulawesi.

"This blood donation unit outlet must not let be empty, so please attract people to come here to donate their blood," Kalla, former vice president, said.

PMI has planned to set up a number of blood donation unit outlets at various malls as part of its target to achieve the target of collecting 4.8 million pouches of blood needed by the Indonesian population of around 237 million.

"So far, most of the national blood supplies are collected from volunteers reaching up to 83 percent, while the remaining 17 percent are from substituting blood donors," he once said.

The data show that volunteers have played significant role in the country`s donating blood.

Up to September 2010, the PMI has collected 3.0 million pouches of blood from donors nationwide, and the majority of the donors were 40 years and older, according to Ria Thahir, head of PMI`s public relations.

As many as 900,000 pouches contained blood from younger people or 30 percent of the total and 2.1 million pouches, while 70 percent held blood from donors 40 years and older, she said in Jakarta in October 2010.

Thahir regretted the fact that the participation of youths in the blood donation movement had been rather low.

"The PMI will approach youths and encourage them, especially the teenagers, to donate their blood and even make donating blood as part of their life style," Thahir said, adding the PMI would come to schools and campuses to make youths aware of the importance of donating blood.

Jusuf Kalla officially launched the program to set up blood donor unit outlets in cooperation with the management of malls and universities during the commemoration of World Blood Donor Day 2010, on June 14.

With the operation of the blood donor unit outlets (UDD) in public places, people will hopefully find it easier to donate their blood so we can meet the target of achieving 4.8 million blood pouches per year.

Kalla said the opening of blood donor units at malls and campuses was inspired by the fact that they were much visited by the public.

The PMI will in the near future also open blood donor units at State Islamic University (UIN) and the University of Indonesia (UI) in Jakarta, the University of Indonesian Education (UPI) in Bandung (West Java), and the University of 17 Agustus in Surabaya (East Java).

The facilities will also be opened at Pondok Indah Mall in Jakarta, Olympic Garden Mall in Malang (East Java), and Pasar Baru Mall in Bandung.

Kalla said the blood donor activities at malls and campuses would mostly target middle-class healthy youths who frequently visit such places. ***3***

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(T.F001/A/F001/F001) 30-11-2010 16:15:02

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