TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Blood drive: Jakartans help fellow citizens, secure supply
The Indonesian Red Cross in Jakarta collects around 1,100 bags of blood per day. More than enough to meet daily demand in the city, this also helps alleviate shortages elsewhere.
Change Size
Donating blood can be good for your health and can even spare you your daily run on the treadmill. (Shutterstock/File)
I
t is thanks to people like Dwi Andhika, Virginia Thasya and hundreds of other donors across Jakarta that the city can meet its need for some 1,000 blood bags per day.
For the first time since 2006, Dwi Andhika volunteered to donate blood last weekend.
“I’m more excited now than during my last experience [of donating blood], when I was still in high school. I was nervous back then. This time, I feel happy and relieved,” said the 29-year-old.
Dwi said he felt moved to act when he came to know that many branches of the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) lacked blood supplies. As an adult man meeting all the requirements to donate blood, he felt obligated to help others by doing so.
PMI Jakarta blood transfusion unit head Salimar Salim said the organization was able to collect around 1,100 bags of blood per day to meet daily demand of 800-1,000 bags.
Some 300 bags are gathered from PMI blood donor centers, while the other 800 are from mobile PMI blood donation units.
“We currently have 14 cars. [The mobile teams] open blood donation posts across the city in accordance with a schedule we set beforehand,” she told The Jakarta Post.
