THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Being minors, the students of Sivagiri Sree Narayana Senior Secondary School cannot donate blood. But if it were not for them, the blood donation camp held at the school on Saturday would not have been so successful. The students trudged from house to house convincing grown-ups to donate blood.
Akshay Das in Class 11 was part of a group which went to nearby colleges, a bank and other institutions. ‘’In colleges, some said they would not be able to come as they had classes. But a lot of people who said no eventually turned up,’’ he said. “We had a few guests over from Kollam and I even managed to persuade them too to come to school and donate blood.’’ Akshay and his friend also visited around 15 houses near the school for campaigning.
Most students were not part of the official campaigning group. Still, they took it upon themselves to visit their neighbours and talk about blood donation.
Laya Nizar, another Class 11 student said: ‘’My neighbours initially refused to come, saying they might feel tired. But I explained to them that they was no need of fear and they came.’’
‘’Before the awareness class I did not know that a single bag of blood can save the lives of four people. The class helped me convince my neighbours,’’ she said
Another student, Gowrikrishna S said: ‘’My house is too far. Only a few of the neighbours I invited came for the event.’’
The young children’s passionate campaign yielded dividends. School principal Lariza Kuttappan said: ‘’The blood bank officials had brought 50 bags, expecting to take back 25 bags of blood. But the donors were pouring in, and we ran out of collection bags. A section of donors had to return without donating blood. Most of the school staff, who were waiting for their turn, did not get a chance to donate blood’’.
Kollam IMA Blood Bank Officer Dr Anitha Balakrishnan feels that an awareness class before the event made all the difference. ‘’Three years ago, we had held an event in another school, which was not as successful. This time a few days before the event we held an awareness class and this was helpful,’’ she said. The event was an experiment. Blood donation camps are usually held in colleges. But Dr Anitha says that now college students have exams all the time, with the semester system in place. In addition as the number of dengue cases are rising, there is dire need for blood.
Dr Anitha is happy with the response at the school. ‘’We got 50 bags of blood, which have been separated into red blood cells and plasma. It can save the lives of 70 people. We now plan to repeat the awareness class and donation camp in more schools,’’ she said.
