Today is World Blood Donor Day 2020. The World Health Organization is celebrating it with the theme “Safe blood saves lives” and the slogan “Give blood and make the world a healthier place”
The memorial event serves to thank voluntary, unpaid blood, for their life-saving gifts of blood and also to raise awareness of the need for regular blood donations to ensure that all individuals and communities have access to affordable and timely supplies of safe and quality-assured blood and blood products, as an integral part of universal health coverage and a key component of effective health systems.
The focus of this year’s campaign
The campaign theme for this year’s World Blood Donor Day is “Safe blood saves lives” with the slogan “Give blood and make the world a healthier place”. The idea is to focus on the contribution an individual giver can make to improve health for others in the community. Blood donations are needed all over the world to ensure individuals and communities have access to safe and quality-assured blood and blood products in both normal and emergency situations. Through the campaign, we call on more people all over the world to become life-savers by volunteering to donate blood regularly.
The objectives of this year’s campaign are:
- to celebrate and thank individuals who donate blood and to encourage those who have not yet donated blood to start donating;
- to highlight the need for committed, year-round blood donation, to maintain adequate supplies and achieve universal and timely access to safe blood transfusion;
- to focus attention on the contribution donors make to the entire community as a critical factor in improving health;
- to demonstrate the need for universal access to safe blood transfusion and provide advocacy on its role in the provision of effective health care and in achieving the goal of universal health coverage;
- to mobilize support at national, regional, and global levels among governments and development partners to invest in, strengthen and sustain national blood programs.
A Chat with Alphonse Kurian, DGM – HR, (Rtd) ITI Ltd, Bangalore, and Founder of http://www.lionsbloodline.com/
On the occasion I had a long video chat with Alphonse Kurian, (Contact Alphonse Kurian at 94488 12330 or email him at mail@lionsbloodline.com.) has been very active in creating a blood donors list, which is now digitalized and has been instrumental in building a strong blood donation network in Bengaluru.
The 66-year-old Alphonse Kurian Kamicheril passed his MA Social Work from Indore School of Social Work in 1974-76 and started his career at Thomas Pharmaceuticals, Mumbai, and then moved to Bangalore and retired in Feb 2011 as Deputy General Manager – HR of the Bangalore Plant heading the HR Dept.
While at Bangalore, his social work background led him to join the Lions Club of Bangalore Sanjaynagar in 1990. Seeing the need for blood increase, he published a Directory of Voluntary Blood Donors with the first edition in 1996. This was well received and with regular updations, the numbers increased and the list is now on the website www.lionsbloodline.com accessible to all.
On a monthly basis about 60 to 75 persons respond and donate, not only blood but also Single Donor Platelets(SDP), from this group. They are the real Life-Saving Heroes according to Alphonse Kurian.
This activity which is life-saving saw all major dailies of Bangalore feature Alphonse Kurian and the Lions Club of Bangalore Sanjaynagar’s LionsBloodLine in their dailies at some point or other.
Having held all Lions Club level positions of leadership and repeating Secretary and President, he was the Chairman for Blood Donation for Lions District 317F for 2015-16 and again in the current year 2019-20
He has coordinated 1,231 camps collected 76, 595 units of blood for various hospitals since 2004-05 till 2018-19. On average in a year around 140 camps are done and around 9000 units collected annually for different blood banks at Bangalore. In addition around 500 donors respond and donate blood against requirements coordinated by him yearly now.
Take time out today to watch the chat here. I suggest you watch till the end – its interesting, enriching, enervating, and educational all at the same time. But at the end, there is a special surprise – Anil Kumble, who endorses all that is good in blood donation and the good work of Alphonse Kurian.
Donate blood as often as you can.
