Daily Times

In support of World Blood Donor Day observed on June 14 every year, Facebook is promoting blood donations along with blood banks in Pakistan and other countries such as Bangladesh, Brazil, and India.

People who visit Blood Donations on Facebook can also sign up to be a blood donor. The donors will get notified directly when there is need for blood nearby.

To date, more than 10 million people have signed up and thousands of donations have been facilitated through Facebook.

“We are also running a campaign in these countries to raise awareness regarding blood shortage and the importance and impact of donating blood,” the statement issued by Facebook said.

In many countries, including Pakistan, blood donations are typically at their lowest during May and June. To help raise awareness about the shortage and the need for donations, Facebook will be running a campaign through the month of June to encourage people to donate blood, share stories of people who have saved lives using these features and educate people about the process of donating blood. “During the summer vacations and in the holy month of Ramzan blood donation rates fall in Pakistan and in the past few years these times have overlapped and caused real hardship to the patients, particularly the large population of transfusion-dependent Thalassemia patients,” said Professor Hasan Abbas Zaheer the National Coordinator of the Safe Blood Transfusion Program.

“Our blood banks thus face an urgent need to collect blood through repeat donations from our regular donors and also by recruiting (and retaining) more new donors to ensure replenishment of blood stocks from a low-risk population” added Professor Zaheer.

According to Professor Zaheer, government’s Safe Blood Transfusion Programme welcomes Blood Donations through Facebook which make it easier for people to support their local blood donation events and respond to requests for blood donations.

“Remember your one blood donation can help save the lives of three different patients,” remarked Professor Zaheer.

Shasha S, whose father benefitted from Facebook’s blood donation feature, said that her father had an open heart surgery but the hospital told her that she needed to find six donors to fulfil the blood requirements. According to Shasha, her family and contacts were unable to donate blood since they were fasting.

“Luckily I remembered the Blood Donation feature on Facebook, and quickly clicked on the icon, shared my father’s blood type and details of where people could donate. Within hours, two strangers came forward to donate blood to my father” said Shasha “My father is recovering nowadays. I encourage everyone to sign up as a donor,” said Shasha.

Published in Daily Times, June 13^th 2018.