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The Mega Blood Donation annual is held this Wednesday, December 16 on the esplanade of the Emmanuel Anquetil building in Port-Louis. The exercise will run until 6 p.m. But already, at 11:15 am, many donors were already on site for this humanitarian gesture.
As every year, getting more young people to rally to this cause is the challenge. Since 2018, young people between the ages of 18 and 25 have only made up 10% of donors. “Despite our awareness campaigns, young people still do not feel concerned. There are parents who say to their children ‘kifer to bizin donn disan?’ When parents act selfishly, children do not have a good example to follow. On the other hand, if parents take their children with them when they go to donate blood, they will follow suit. If we had a donor in each family, we would not have had a blood problem ”, says Subhanand Seegoolam of the Blood Donors Association (BDA).
“We launched Pledge 15 at the start of the year for young people, where they commit to donate blood at least fifteen times in their life. However, with the confinement, or even the upheaval of the school calendar, the project remained blocked. But we resume in January. For example, on January 27, we will be at the State College of Quatre-Bornes. ” To add that to date, 310 people have joined Pledge 15. They are students from St Mary’s colleges, Dr Maurice Curé, the University of Technology, and young people from the City Clinic and the prison.
“Youth clubs and organizations wishing to join can contact the BDA which has, for some time, had regional branches”, emphasizes our interlocutor. He suggests that the association has set a goal of collecting 1,500 pints of blood to ensure there is no lack during the year-end period.
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