Lend an Arm – Malta (MMSA)

Name of the activity: Lend an Arm

Country/NMO: Malta (MMSA)

Program: Organ, Marrow & Tissue Donation

Contact information: [email protected]

Type of the activity: Proactive encouragement of blood donation

Focus area:

Blood donation

Problem statement:

Urgent calls for blood donors are frequently made by the National Blood Transfusion Centre in Malta with a growing use by cancer patients, those with kidney problems and more. Approximately 80% of people in Malta eligible to give blood fail to do so.

Target groups and beneficiaries:

The target group is students of the University of Malta. Beneficiaries of this activity are all those people who receive donated blood which ultimately may mean the difference between life and death.

Objectives and indicators of success:

– Organise at least one themed blood donation event every two months by the end of the term (end of April) where a minimum of 5 students donate blood
Indicators of success – the number of events organised and number of people who donate at each one
– Have a total of 40 people donate blood by the end of the events with at least half of these being new donors
Indicators of success – total number of people who donated and number of new donors

Methodology:

Each event will be associated with a theme such as Halloween and Christmas seasons. All events will consist of taking students to the Blood Transfusion Unit. An online event is created at least two weeks before each event to allow for promotion and offer students the chance to sign up for a preferred time. The blood donation team is present for the hours of each event while students come and go to donate blood and social media is used to post pictures of the donors and number of donations.

Plans for evaluation:

The most important factor is the number of new first time donors that have joined our events and donated which gives us an indicator of the number of people encouraged to donate blood by our events. Also comparing the number of donors from year to year as this will be a continuous activity, seeing if it is better received as time passes with more donors due to increasing promotion and raising awareness of the importance of it.