REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Indonesian Red Cross (PMI), the US Embassy in Jakarta, and NGO Blood4Life will hold a national blood drive in Jakarta and five other cities in Indonesia on May 6-7, 2014.
The blood donor campaign will be held simultaneously in Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Padang, Ambon, Makassar and Bandung, according to a US Embassy press release on Saturday.
It stated that Blood4Nation seeks to promote and highlight the importance of donating blood to keep a reliable blood supply for Indonesia and provide a live-saving resource to patients in need.
The launch event of this year's "Blood4Nation" campaign will be held at the @america cultural center on May 6, and the closing ceremony will take place on May 7, and will include the awarding of the "Ambassador's Cup" to the location that raises the most blood bags.
The @america cultural center in the Pacific Place Mall will be open for donations from 1200-2000 both days, and the program includes a full day of music, stand-up comedy and entertainment.
All donors will also receive a t-shirt, tote bag, wristband, and certificate signed by US Ambassador to Indonesia Robert Blake to showcase their support for Blood4Nation 2014.
This is the third Blood4Nation blood drive hosted by the Embassy.
In January 2012, the inaugural Blood4Nation took place at @america, the US Embassy's 21st century cultural center in Jakarta, and resulted in 260 bags of blood donated to the blood supply for Indonesia.
In 2013, Blood4Nation was expanded to six cities and gathered donations of almost 1000 bags of blood.
Building on last year's success, this year's Blood4Nation campaign includes Jakarta and five other cities: Yogyakarta, Padang, Ambon, Makassar and Bandung.
Blood drives in these cities will be hosted by "American Corners" from the following universities: Institut Teknologi Bandung (Bandung), Universitas Hasanuddin (Makassar), Universitas Muhammadiyah (Yogyakarta), Universitas Pattimura (Ambon), and Universitas Andalas (Padang).
Working with the local PMI branches, these "American Corners" will also be organizing donation sites from approximately 8.30 am-4 pm on May 6-7.
In accordance with World Health Organization (WHO) international standards, PMI has a target to obtain 4.5 million bags of donated blood per year.
Indonesia currently is on track to obtain approximately 3.5 million bags of donated blood annually, leaving it 1 million bags short of its target.
Based on statistics from 2013, last year PMI received blood from 2,500,883 donors, with about 41 percent being first-time donors.
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