Al Ameen Service from Dubai Police, in association with Al Emarat Al Youm Newspaper and Dubai Centre for Blood Donation have set out an initial working mechanism to soon launch an ongoing campaign to encourage members of the society to take the initiative in donating blood; in order to counter the issue of blood shortage, especially for Thalassemia, blood cancer (Leukemia) patients and those injured in accidents.
 

Al Ameen Service will soon prepare a MOU that states the agreement’s articles which have been discussed during a meeting all three parties last Thursday. All parties have agreed on setting out an application for “Patient Sponsorship” to donate voluntarily which will ensure the needed blood to fulfill the necessities of the patients.

 

It is noted that the number of the current volunteers are 700 person, whereas each Thalassemia patient needs from 3 to 4 people to donate him/her blood from a week to three weeks.

 

In details, an official from Al Ameen Service has suggested during the meeting to organize gatherings for every community in the consulate of their corresponding country for a specific time in order to donate blood. He also suggested organizing a semi-annual campaigns between governmental and semi-governmental departments, in coordination with the Blood Donation Centre in which employees and clients are involved in these campaigns.

 

Nadia Kalantar, head of marketing and donors registration at Dubai Blood Donation Centre, stated that their daily need ranges from 120-500 blood unit but they only receive 100 unit, which is the minimum needed number of units. She points out also that there are patients in desperate need for blood. She continues on saying that they currently have 700 volunteer with annual contracts. At the end of contract term, the volunteer could either extend or terminate it as the donation issue is an option. She notes that the number of volunteer is not as expected and they are need for more.

 

She assures that there is a need to raise awareness between members of the society to the importance of blood donation, as it is considered a national and human duty in the first place. She elaborates in saying that the centre receives donors from 18 years of age and above. Whereas the younger donors need to have the consent of their parents.

 

Kalantar has also touched on the importance of platelets for Leukemia patients. She notes that though there is an increasing number of such patients on the other hand there is a shortage in blood donation as the process of platelets donation takes more time.

 

Within the same context, Asma Al Neyadi, head of medical labs of Dubai Blood Donation Centre, explained that the device responsible in taking out the platelets pulls out the blood then inserts it into the device, where it will be filtered and re-inserted again in the donor’s body to extract the platelets from.

 

She indicates that this process takes time which also calls for paying 200 Dirhams to the platelets donor.

 

Al Emarat Al Youm Chief Editor, Mr. Sami Al Reyami also indicated to the modes of supporting the campaign in media, he suggested preparing a “Patient Sponsorship” application in which the donor voluntarily registers to secure the blood to meet up with the patients needs. He also stressed on the fact that this campaign should be continuous and unlimited to a time restraints.

 

Al Reyami has also assured the newspaper’s willingness to adopt a media campaign via publishing information regarding the needed and the available amount of blood daily, in cooperation with Dubai Blood Donation Centre. In addition to interviewing permanent donors and patients in need for blood in order to highlight on the importance of blood donation and saving lives. He also affirmed the willingness of the newspaper to harness all its potential to reach this objective in supporting the campaign via its social networking accounts on “Facebook”, “Twitter” and website through posting urgent cases of patients in need for blood.