(Gulf News) - Volunteers have been responding in huge numbers to Al Ain Blood Bank’s donation campaign, with hundreds of units collected in just a few days.In the spirit of Ramadan, people have been donating blood as a charitable act.”It is a great human service that can save the lives of people in emergencies,” said Hamad Al Mulla, Director of the Blood Bank at Tawam Hospital.
The bank has been sending its mobile blood collection unit to different mosques and shopping malls where volunteers have been queuing to donate blood, he said.
Some 300 units of blood have been collected from just two mosques in Al Khubesi and central districts of the city.
Another 180 units were collected in just a few hours at the Police Training School in the Al Foah district, he added.
“We will be sending our mobile unit to all mosques in the city and market places as part of our Ramadan campaign,” said Al Mulla. He said people of all nationalities had been coming forward to donate blood. However, the majority of the donors were Emirati.Healthy trend
The bank has been providing blood to different government and private hospitals in Al Ain.
“Donating blood is a healthy trend in society that helps medical facilities provide prompt assistance to patients,” said the director. Continuous donations and campaigns have helped the blood bank maintain a reasonable quantity of available blood to meet demand.
Al Mulla said the number of young donors aged between 18 to 25 years has steadily been increasing. He said voluntary blood donors were the foundation of a safe blood supply.
“We have succeeded in developing a support of some 7,000 donors,” he said. Al Mulla said that the blood bank had also made another important achievement by bringing an end to buying blood from paid sources.
Volunteers
In 1995, he said, some 64 per cent of the centre’s blood collection was paid and 36 per cent collected from volunteer donors.
This ration was improved considerably in 2000 and now 100 percent of blood is donation-based. he said. The availability of donations has also helped in improving the quality of blood collection which is the centre’s prime concern.
“We are applying more energies and resources in meeting international quality standards in our efforts,” he said.