Blood Donation Camp Back

Blood Donation Camp was organized on 9^th of February 2014 in continuation of the Platinum Jubilee Celebrations of the Derebail Church.  The event was jointly organized by the members of the Catholic Sabha and Yuva Spandan.

The programme began at 8.30 AM at the mini hall in collaboration with Fr. Muller’s Hospital. The president of Yuva Spandan, Mr. Prajwal Sequeira welcomed the gathering and compeered the event. The programme started with a hymn and a reading from the Holy Bible. The Parish Priest, the Assistant Parish Priest, The Vice President of the Parish Pastoral Council along with the President of the Blood Bank of Fr. Muller’s Hospital, Dr. Preethi were accompanied to the dais and welcomed with flowers by the President of the Catholic Sabha Mr. Denis Lasrado.

Blood donation is a life saver and we should be ever ready to donate blood and encourage others as well to donate blood said the Parish Priest in his message. Dr. Preethi in her message stressed the importance of blood donation and informed that every two minutes there is a requirement for blood by a patient and more than 50,000 people are in need of blood. One person can be a life saver for four other people and there is no other donation that is more important than blood donation. Healthy adults in the age group of 18 to 60 years can donate blood. The person who wants to donate blood should weigh minimum 50 kgs and the hemoglobin should be 12.5 at least. She stressed that blood donation is an easy and clean procedure and it would be beneficial for many people to come forward and participate in blood donation programs.

Mr. Vincent Castelino spoke briefly about the importance of eye donation. India has a high number of people who are blind and the world over there are about 5.5 crore people in this category. India has close to 120 lakhs of people who are afflicted by the disease of the cornea and eye donation can benefit this group. Anyone between the age group of 18 to 90 years can donate their eyes; however their intention to donate their eyes needs to be intimated in writing in advance. He said that it would be a noble gesture to come forward and donate eyes and light up someone’s life instead of letting them go a waste once we die.

In Derebail, in the 1998, there was an awareness session on eye donation and since then, only 5 people have donated their eyes. From the year 1998 to 2013, 407 people have expired in Derebail parish. Eye donation needs to be done within 6 hours of death. People interested to donate eyes have to give a declaration form in writing and need to inform their families in advance. It would be a good practice to talk about the benefits off eye donation during the Ward meetings and encourage parishioners to donate their eyes. It is possible for all of us to give sight to two people and those interested to know more about eye donation can contact Mr. Vincent Castelino.

Mr. Vincent Pinto proposed the vote of thanks. Although many donors came forward, it was possible for only 18 people to donate blood on this occasion.