THE RIGHT MOVE
I started my official journey with the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) after I gave birth to my second child, Mischka back in 2009. One of the most fulfilling accomplishments I had with PRC is bringing together the residents of the upscale community, Barangay Greenhills, to actively participate in the community through Red Cross, not just through their usual monetary donations, but to actually join time-consuming seminars and trainings. That year, Greenhills had its first recognized PRC 143 Volunteers complete with members equipped with the necessary skills and training to respond to emergencies.
"Red Cross 143 aims to promote a culture of self-help in schools, workplaces, and communities by developing a formidable network of Red Cross volunteers who will prepare for disasters and respond rapidly to emergencies. Red Cross 143 was created to build community resilience where Red Cross 143 volunteers serve as the eyes, ears, hands, and feet of the Philippine Red Cross. Red Cross 143 is composed of one leader and a minimum of 43 members who make 44 volunteers on site and who will “take charge” and be the first to predict, plan, prepare, practice, report, and respond." (Redcross.org.ph)
I soon became a councilor and director of Philippine Red Cross Rizal Chapter covering the cities of San Juan, Pasig, and Mandaluyong, to name a few.
When I transferred my residence to Quezon City years back, my passion for the Red Cross did not change. Different cities, similar concerns and same passion to serve from its volunteers and board members to deliver humanitarian services to its communities. The story of the PRC is a tale hundreds of thousands of men and women who devote their time and resources to help the poorest of the poor, and anyone else regardless of creed, religion, gender, and socio-economic status.
One of the most pressing needs Red Cross chapters have faced is the need for blood – a concern catapulted to top priority during the pandemic. The irony is, as more and more people requested blood for their ill relatives, we had less and less supply in our blood banks. Not only were people scared to go out, they were more fearful to donate blood.
As cases of COVID-19 decreased in the past months, the IATF rules finally allowed us to conduct the much needed bloodletting programs. I was over the moon when I was given "clearance" to finally start collaborating with other non government organizations such as fraternities and sororities in QC to conduct bloodletting activities.
In the last bloodletting service I organized together with PRC QC, Junior Chamber International San Juan Pinaglabanan, and the Alpha Kappa Rho QC, we were able to collect 61 successful blood donations from over 100 donors during a nine-hour period (You may view the process of bloodletting at my Facebook page, Rikki Mathay QC). Yes, it takes a lot to get one unit of precious blood and not everyone who wants to donate ends up doing so after going through several tests to make the blood viable.
Here are some of the reasons why a donor may not pass the tests:
1. Underweight
2. Having been tattooed during the past year (this is also applicable to acupuncture)
3. Lack of sleep
4. Alcohol consumption over the past 24 hours
There are also those who cannot donate including people who have:
1. Certain medications including psoriasis medicines
2. Cancer
3. Cardiac disease
4. Severe lung disease
5. Hepatitis B and C
6. HIV infection, AIDS or Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD)
7. Unexplained weight loss of more than five kilograms over six months.
8. Chronic alcoholism.
But a healthy individual may donate every three months. In fact, donating blood will make a person even healthier as the bone marrow is stimulated to produce new blood cells which in turn makes the blood forming organs function more effectively.
And no. You cannot contract diseases from donating blood as the Red Cross uses sterile, disposable needles and syringes.
Organizing bloodletting activities is indeed not an easy task both from our end and the donors, but we continue to push for this program because even a drop of blood can save a life. In fact, Red Cross QC under the leadership of Ms. Janice Adolfo provided grocery bags aside from snacks, to encourage more people to become donors. Successful donors also receive Red Cross IDs which they can use to give them priority in case they themselves would need blood in the future.
If you wish to organize a bloodletting drive for your organizations, you may get in touch with me at [email protected], and as I always say, we will be there anytime and anywhere and we can start saving lives.