The Blood Donors Association and the Blood Donors Northern held a Primary School Awareness programme on the importance of blood donation, this morning, at Northlands Pre-primary and Primary School, in Triolet, in the presence of the Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Kailesh Kumar Singh Jagutpal.
The purposes of this new initiative, which will be extended to other primary schools, are two-fold: to create awareness among pupils on the importance of giving blood to save lives with a view to encouraging them to become future blood donors, and to engage children as ambassadors to promote blood donation to the adult world, their families and communities. The programme is in line with the overall objective of the Blood Donors Association to guarantee present as well as future blood donations.
In his address, Dr Kailesh Kumar Singh Jagutpal commended the Blood Donors Association and its regional branches for this awareness campaign among school children, which he deemed, would fully acquaint youngsters with voluntary blood donation, thereby paving the way for more potential voluntary blood donors in the future.
The Minister of Health and Wellness seized the opportunity to explain to the children present the essential role of blood, through its function of transportation, regulation and protection, to maintain the health and life of the body. He stressed that blood cannot be manufactured artificially outside the body so that those who required treatment with blood products, whether adults or children, relied on voluntary blood donation.
Speaking on the way blood donation could save lives, Dr Jagutpal told the pupils how to become a donor by adopting, henceforth, a healthy lifestyle with good nutrition habits and physical activity. He called on the children to learn beyond their academic subjects and acquire knowledge on life and world issues such as blood donation so as to share with their family and community.
In the context of the awareness programme, the children of Grades 5 and 6 mounted an art exhibition comprising their art works on the theme 'Donating blood is an act of solidarity'. They were also abled to visit the Blood Donors Association's mobile caravan posted at their school to see first-hand what the blood donation process involved. Parents of the children were invited as well to donate their blood at the caravan.
