THE Philippine Red Cross-Davao City Chapter (PRC-DCC) invited more blood donors to take part in various blood-letting activities being conducted in the city as the organization is in great scarcity of blood supply.
PRC-DCC Service Representative Gwen Clarisse Cachuela, during a media conference on Wednesday, August 2, said the chapter receives at least 80 blood supply requests daily, in which only 30 to 40 of these requests are being catered.
Cachuela said the increasing population in the city has contributed to the rising demand of blood supply.
In the previous years, she said PRC-DCC was producing ample supply as the demand was not persistent as now.
The chapter, Cachuela said, can only gather blood supply through private and government blood-letting activities as it does not have the capacity to conduct such for multiple times.
“We are not funded by the government and we solely rely our budget on donations and fund-raising activities. Thus we cannot form our own blood-letting activities using our own budget so we partner with companies and establishments,” she said.
Cachuela said blood-letting activities are the major source of blood supply for the chapter, adding that there were minimal activities done since last year to present.
With every blood-letting activity conducted by different companies, she said only 30 to 40 percent of every 100 applicants are allowed to donate.
Those who are not qualified may mean that they have health conditions that could get worse because of the blood transfusion.
Mass blood-letting events, like the recent one conducted by a television media company in a mall in the city, Cachuela said, are the greatest supplier of blood for the chapter as these are open for everyone interested regardless of any demographic requirements.
“We are encouraging private and government offices to initiate partnership with us. We are just waiting for you and we are all ready to extend our assistance to provide all the blood supply demands in our city and other neighboring places,” she said.
Cachuela added that those interested individual and company donors may come anytime to the PRC-DCC office for the arrangement of the activity.