WELCOME TO THE SOLOMON ISLANDS RED CROSS HOMEPAGE

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

A gift for Life- Blood Donation

(By Urijah Nomi Liligeto, 15 years old, Betikama College Form 3, 2008. A winner of the SI Red Cross Blood Donor Day essay competition)

Many of us may ask question, what is Blood Donation? According to the World Book Encyclopedia, it states that blood donation is when an individual voluntarily has blood drawn, usually for a blood transfusion, to another person. The one reason blood donors say why they give blood is because they want to help others. Some are also paid and in some cases there are incentives other than money. I will be writing on why blood is important for us, how and why we should donate blood.

Blood makes about seven percentage of your body weight. We all have different types of blood and Doctor Karl Landstainer first identified the major human blood groups as A,B, AB, O in 1901. Our blood has different jobs and it helps our body organs to be mobile. For example, we need red blood to carry oxygen to body organs and tissues while white blood cells are the body’s primary defense against infection. These are the reasons why need blood.

In our country today, people need blood and we help them by donating our blood. In our world today, someone needs blood every two seconds and about one in seven people entering a hospital need blood. Anemic patients need blood transfusion to increase their red blood cell levels and children who are treated for cancer, pre-mature infants and children undergoing heart surgery need blood. For these reasons, blood centers often short of blood so it is our challenge to help our fellow men and women by donating blood.

So, you can donate blood by going to the blood centers like Red Cross. You will be helped by people who worked there. Four easy steps to donate blood are by checking your medical history, quick physical check, donate then have snack. The actual blood donation usually takes about ten minutes. The entire process- from the time your sign to the time you leave- takes about an hour.

Many people are scared to donate but not this- you cannot get AIDS or any infectious disease by donating blood and giving blood wasn’t reducing your strength. Just donate blood because you are helping people who are in need of blood.

In conclusion, I just want to say that there is no substitute for human blood. We can be a life saver to someone. In the biblical aspect, we are saved from sin through the blood of Jesus and he became our substitute by dying on that cross on Calvary. So remember, the blood donation is all about life and death, and remember that a pint of your blood may save someone’s life.