Every Blood Donor is a Hero; Be One Today – Kuwait (KuMSA)

Name of the activity: Every Blood Donor is a Hero; Be One Today

Country/NMO: Kuwait (KuMSA)

Program: Organ, Marrow & Tissue Donation

Contact information: [email protected]

Type of the activity: Campaign

Focus area:

Blood donation

Problem statement:

Blood transfusion saves millions of lives, all over the world, every year. Although there’s a considerable amount of blood donors in Kuwait, blood supply is still a challenge that it faces on a daily basis, which is why we decided to pursue the issue

Target groups and beneficiaries:

target group: Medical students, university staff, and families of students
beneficiary: blood donation recipients

Objectives and indicators of success:

– raise awareness on importance of blood donation (indicator: survey distributed to event goers to show extent if new knowledge and perspective.
– collect blood donations, at least 20 pints for the day (indicator: we counted the number of donated pints= 36 per day)
– enroll blood donors in a blood donor membership system, for future blood donation supply (50+ people couldn’t donate on the same day of the blood drive, due to various reasons, but got enrolled in the program for future donations)

Methodology:

We partnered with the national Blood Bank of Kuwait for a blood drive and blood donation awareness campaign. We set up a blood drive in the university campus where people could donate blood on the spot. People could undergo tests, donate blood, and do various activities that enhance blood donation awareness. Campaign included: Media campaign, actual blood drive, posters and booths, and interactive activities.

Plans for evaluation:

We distributed survey to evaluate knowledge and feedback. We also collected number of blood donors from previous campaigns and compared it to our campaign. the number of blood donors has tripled.