November is Road Safety Month in Guyana, and the National Road Safety Council (NRSC) will be partnering the Guyana Red Cross Society (GRCS) for a blood drive today, at the GRCS headquarters in Kingston.? The event coincides with World Blood Donor Day.
The message for this month’s drive is “You can make a difference between an adequate blood supply or a shortage”.
According to the Red Cross, the focus of World Blood Donor Day 2010 was on Young Donors – with the slogan: “New blood for the World”.
It was disclosed that the Guyana Red Cross is working towards a new generation of idealistic and motivated voluntary unpaid blood donors will form a pool that provides the safest blood possible for use wherever and whenever it is needed to save lives.
Coordinator for the National Road Safety Council, Ramona Doorgen, noted that “the Council sees the importance for voluntary blood donations since blood cannot be manufactured and is needed to save lives but it can only come from generous donors.”
The Guyana Red Cross, however, has already embarked on the journey to recruit and retain young donors through blood drives (on the second Tuesday of every month) and at the Club 25 youth group.
According to the GRCS, Club 25 is dedicated to young, voluntary blood donors who aim to give 20 units of blood by their 26th birthday. The members become peer educators, they encourage peers to live healthy lifestyles and give blood regularly.
“The need for blood is increasing in all parts of the world. Young people can make an important contribution by donating blood and by recruiting other young people to become donors.” The GRSC stated.
According to Communication Assistant of GRSC, Kerensa Singh, blood donors must maintain a healthy iron level in their diet by eating iron rich foods, such as red meat, fish, poultry, beans, iron-fortified cereals and raisins, be at least 17 years old, or 16 years old with parental consent, weigh at least 110 lbs and must be free of STI’s and HIV/AIDS.
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php
Five Filters featured article: Beyond Hiroshima - The Non-Reporting of Falluja's Cancer Catastrophe.
No comments:
Post a Comment