Students mobilize community for blood donations
Armenia - Some 80 people in Aparan town, in the Aragatsotn region of Armenia, volunteered for non-remunerated blood donation with the hope of saving somebody’s life, after children and youth made a call to the community. The idea was born when the student council members came across the story of a child who needed a blood transfusion to keep living.
“While searching the Internet, we bumped into the story of an 18-year-old girl who suffered from blood cancer and needed a donor to carry on with the treatment. The story had a strong emotional impact on us and we decided to catalyze for blood donation in our town for children in similar circumstances,” says Mariam, 15.
...we have to appreciate the human side in ourselves...
The idea was taken to the Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry by World Vision’s Child Health Now Campaign and the student council members were taken for a tour of the Registry in Yerevan and were educated on the whole cycle of blood donation.
When back home, the children decided on promotional items to raise awareness and help patients suffering from leukemia and other blood related diseases. Leaflets, TV programmes and a public service announcement were developed to raise awareness and promote blood donation.
“The main misconception at that time was that giving stem cells was a dangerous process. It is absolutely not. All the donor has to do is give blood that will be processed through an apheresis machine - to separate the extra stem cells circulating in blood and return the rest of blood back to the donor,” says Tatev, 14.
For a lot of community members all we talked about was new and hard to grasp; some even went hostile. Even so, many of them have shown up today willing to donate their blood“.
The youngsters helped me fill in a Donor Health Check questionnaire and then the nurse took a small vial of blood from me. I will be glad if all this helps someone out there,” says Artak Vardanyan, from Aparan town.
“We have to appreciate the human side in ourselves. My uncle passed away from the blood cancer years ago and I know for sure that it is a very hard illness and those who go through it need to get as much help as possible,” shares Karen, 15.
It was important that children learn to act united and achieve a common target.
“It was important that children learn to act united and achieve a common target. This was an experience that taught them how cooperation and partnership should run, they learnt how to mobilize the community and recruit donors,” explains Arman Grigoryan, Aparan Area Development Programme manager.
Founded in 1999 the Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry is a not-for-profit organization with a mission to ensure that people struck with a life threatening blood-related illness are able to find hope for long-term survival through the identification of a genetically-suitable bone marrow match. So far, some 22,000 donors from all around the world have registered in the Registry database. Recently, a stem cell harvesting centre was established in Armenia and donors no longer have to travel outside the country to donate their stem cells.