Blood Drives At Work
Hosting blood drives in the workplace gets employees involved in a greater cause.
It’s National Blood Donor Month, and 14 June is World Blood Donor Day. It’s the perfect time to raise awareness about the importance of donating blood. The South African National Blood Service (SANBS) is a non-profit organisation that works to ensure there are ample blood and blood products available to South Africans, when needed.
The SANBS website is updated regularly to showcase the stock of blood they have available, as well as their stock of platelets. It also showcases which blood types they are short on. It’s quite surprising how little they have in stock at times, which is all the more reason to get involved by donating blood.
Hosting a blood drive at work is an easy way of involving employees in donating blood, as many people don’t have the time to go out and do it on their own. They also might feel afraid to do so, but with all colleagues taking part, one might find that it is easier to do so too.
The Need To Donate Blood And Platelets
At the time of writing this article, there were 5 days supply of blood available at SANBS, and 0.3 days of platelets available. If the country were to experience a crisis where a lot of blood was needed, we most likely wouldn’t have enough.
According to SANBS, less than 1% of the population donate blood. Are you a portion of that 1%? A unit of blood also only lasts for 42 days after it has been donated, so it’s not something that one can do once and then forget about. It is important to be an active blood donor and to educate our communities on the reasons for this.
Not everyone can donate blood, so it’s important to understand the physical requirements for being a donor, and whether or not you are a high-risk candidate. You can get all the answers to your eligibility on their website.
How To Host A Blood Drive At Work
If you contact SANBS, they will be more than happy to offer their assistance in hosting your blood drive. They aim to collect 3,000 units of blood per day and rely on blood drives at businesses or other establishments in order to meet this goal. There are a few requirements that need to be acknowledged before a blood drive can take place:
- A minimum number of donors is required before SANBS will go to the effort of bringing the relevant equipment on-site
- The size of the venue needs to be adequate and easy to move through
- Blood drives must be booked at least 6 weeks in advance
Booking a blood drive for your business is as simple as getting in touch with a SANBS representative by calling the SANBS call centre on 0800 11 9031. Once you’ve made contact, you can start ironing out the logistics, dates and number of confirmed donors for the day.
Internal Benefits Of Blood Drives
Blood drives are often used as team building events, as they bring staff together in a united cause for the greater good. By donating blood, you are literally saving lives! This is something quite powerful that is inspiring to be a part of.
It’s also an opportunity for employees to become aware of their blood types, their sexual health, as well as their overall health and wellbeing. One needs to be of optimal health in order to donate.
Blood drives are also a great way to do something for the community by way of a corporate social initiative. Each drive contributes to the overall wellbeing of our country. Something much bigger than us as individuals, but also something that we can positively influence.
Resources: Photo by Hush Naidoo on Unsplash and https://sanbs.org.za.