BAGUIO CITY -- One hundred blood donors in 10 minutes. This is the goal of the Provincial Blood Council of Benguet, when it sets up 100 beds at the municipal gymnasium of the capital town of La Trinidad for a blood donation activity on July 31.
Oscar Paris, administrator of the Philippine Red Cross in Benguet, said on Wednesday the activity organizers are eyeing to extract blood from as many as 100 people at the same time.
Paris said the activity aims to make the people of Benguet from its 13 towns understand the importance of voluntarily donating blood to save people's lives.
“We are no longer implementing a blood replacement policy, as well as selling of blood. But we are calling on the people to always place voluntary blood donation in their system so that the resource will always be available to save lives,” Paris said.
He said the target is to have at least one percent of the population of each of the 13 towns in Benguet donate blood voluntarily. This, he said, is one gauge in the scorecard for the Seal of Good Governance.
Paris said the ultimate goal of the effort is for every citizen of Benguet to make blood donation a personal social responsibility as a way to save lives.
He said although the target is just 100 donors at the same time, more donors are welcome to donate blood.
“We are just doing the 100 donors in 10 minutes, but we hope there will be others, who will come and voluntarily donate blood,” Paris said.
The Benguet Red Cross has targeted 4,454 units of blood for 2018. But as of Wednesday (July 11), the non-profit organization has already received 1,500 units of blood.
Paris said the blood donation activity on July 31 will be the highlight of the annual “blood donors month celebration”. The activity, though, he pointed out, would continue even after.
He also urged Benguet's 13 municipalities, the private sector, companies in the province, and the barangays to come up with their own blood donation schedules. (PNA)
