The “Be a Hero” blood campaign’s greatest satisfaction is from saving thousands of lives, says Pratin Lal of the Sai Prema Foundation.

The Foundation, which organises regular blood drives – dubbed the ‘Be a Hero’ campaign – collected more than 1000 pints of blood last year.

This feat earned the foundation the award for the Highest Blood Collection Nationally.

The award was announced last month in a ceremony organised by the Ministry of Health and Medical Services, the Fiji National Blood Service and the Fiji Red Cross Society.

The foundation was also recognised for achieving the ‘Highest Blood Collection’ in the Central Division, the ‘Second Highest Blood Collection’ in the Western Division and the overall highest blood collection Fiji wide.

“We are grateful to the Ministry of Health and its partners for acknowledging our efforts and we are especially very proud to be able to help our health workers save lives,” said Mr Lal, the Central Division co-ordinator of “Be a Hero”.

According to the World Health Organisation, at least three lives can be saved from one pint of blood.

“This means we have contributed to saving at least about 3000 lives; it is an achievement we are extremely proud of and we hope to better the record this year,” said Mr Lal.

Josefa Bolaqace, the national manager of Fiji’s National Blood Services, said the foundation’s contributions were worthy of recognition.

“The foundation’s immense support is a great example to others on how they can help in the organising of blood drives,” he said.

The “Be a Hero” campaign, however, is more than collecting blood, said the foundation’s Western Division campaign co-ordinator Kushant Amarsee.

“It’s also about changing mindsets,” he said, “because it is important to grow a culture of donating blood in Fiji.”

The foundation aims to conduct more than 52 blood drives this year, compared to the 30 drives organised last year.

Source: Sai Prema Foundation

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