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SVN Hindu School spearheads another successful blood drive
In what could be dubbed the most innovative recruitment drive for blood donors, students of the Saraswati Vidya Niketan (SVN) Hindu School, yesterday flanked the thoroughfare outside of the Cornelia Ida, West Coast Demerara, institution soliciting donors.
Armed with placards and leaflets explaining the importance of donating blood, the students were in high spirits as they beckoned passing vehicles to pull over while simultaneously encouraging passersby to give blood.
Volunteer donor at the Saraswati Vidya Niketan Hindu School blood drive yesterday
The novel tactic was in fact one that bore tremendous results as by afternoon, the blood drive, which was held in collaboration with the Society for Empowerment and Wholistic Advancement (SEWA) and the Cornelia Ida Temple Committee, was well on its way to achieving its 501units target for the day.
The blood drive had in fact commenced on Saturday and was intended to be part of a month of activities to commemorate Arrival Day, which was celebrated on May 5 last. The overall target for the two-day activity was expected to be close to 1,000 units.
During an interview yesterday, Vice Principal of the School, Tanuja Gopaul, disclosed that aside from the roadside donors solicited by the students, donations were forthcoming from students themselves, their parents as well as members of communities within proximity.
The school has a population of 406 students, ranging from Forms One through Five of which 363 were actively engaged in the blood donation recruitment drive. The top recruiters of the school are Ajith Parsaud, 12; Shyam Narine, 16; Akshaya Prasaud, 15; Amanda Sookwah, 16 and Al-Ansar Abdul, 18.
Only the students of Forms Four and Five were allowed to donate blood after their parents returned signed consent forms to the school.
This year represents the seventh consecutive year that the school has been undertaking the blood drive, an activity which is geared at helping to address the frequent blood shortage situation at the Ministry of Health’s National Blood Transfusion Service.
According to Gopaul, “since we have been doing these drives, we understand that it has been tremendously helping the situation at the Blood Bank…”
“They have been telling us that an accident victim for example needs a lot of blood and they are often short so we believe that some help like this can go a long way and this is what encourages us every day. We are told one unit of blood can help at least three persons.”
Moreover, the students were more than willing to give up their weekend to seek out volunteers to donate blood even as they advised drivers to “take your time when you are driving on the roads; lives are important, help save them.”
Principal of the School, Swami Aksharananda has in fact been awarded by the Ministry of Health for his role in spearheading blood drives over the years. He explained that the main idea of the annual activity is to give back to the public and to teach the students values of social responsibility of giving back to the public.
Students of the SVN Hindu School soliciting blood donors
The Head of the school said that the annual blood drive was introduced in 2007 and the response from the public has been increasing each year so much so that a decision was made to have two annual blood drives. Another blood drive is slated for November which will be spearheaded by the student body of the school. “We do one annually for the Blood Bank but since last year we started doing it twice a year. Each year it has been getting bigger and bigger and we felt that we should include another at Diwali,” the Swami disclosed.
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