By Neelam Rahim

As happens every year on the 18th of July, people and organisations worldwide went to give their time on International Mandela Day. One such organisation is the South African National Blood Services, which used the day to raise public awareness over donations and ask South Africans to use their 67 minutes for Mandela Day to donate blood in their communities.

Radio Islam speaks to SANBS’s Thandi Mosupye regarding what they have done for this particular day and some other things regarding donating blood.

The National Blood Services recently launched the Good Hood campaign.

According to Thandi, the campaign reels around looking at the communities and trying to make it easier for them to set up blood donation sites. During Covid-19, we noticed struggles reaching some co-operates as people working from home. 

She says there were challenges in terms of travelling to various donation sites. We thought it would be much easier to get the communities to galvanise themselves, identify areas we can visit, and share donor education. After that, move on to the collection of blood. 

Thandi tells Radio Islam that setting up a blood drive is not that admin intensive and doesn’t require a lot of lengthy planning. 

“All you have to do is contact us on 0800 119031. And let us know where your location is. We’ve got our donor relations in most areas, where they can come up and assess the location where you want to have the blood drive. We will then take you through the process in terms of the arrangement around the blood drive.”

Thandi further tells Radio Islam that the response throughout today has been overwhelming. And we would like to thank South Africans for coming out and giving their time in terms of donations. 

She added eligibility for donation is people that are 16 years to 75 years of age, weighing at least 50kgs. Thandi also advises a meal 4 hours before a blood donation. 

for more on this, listen to Radio Islam’s podcast below.