PURR
A Blood Olympics at CPU
Seated are the representatives of each college that won in the Blood Olympics. Standing are the program host, Tess Estrella, assistant technical manager of the Department of Health's Voluntary Blood Service Program; Dr. Judith Gimeno, manager of the Philippine National Red Cross' WV Regional Blood Center; the champion in the Blood Olympics and Edgar Biñas, CPU Republic president.THE Philippine National Red Cross held the first ever Blood Olympics in Western Visayas at the Central Philippine University (CPU) recently. The project’s purpose was to make blood donation exciting for the youth amid an increasing need for more blood donors.
Dr. Judith Gimeno, manager of the Philippine National Red Cross’ WV Regional Blood Center, said that Iloilo City needs more than 100 blood donors a day in order to fulfill the demand for blood. She said that the present supply of blood can only meet 60 to 70 percent of the demands. “We have a gap of 30 percent, thus we have to work for this. Our supply is only enough for emergency cases; for elective cases, none. We want to make blood available immediately when the patient needs it. Only one to two percent of the population donates blood. We need three to five percent,” Dr. Gimeno said.
She also encouraged the public to donate blood as a voluntary gesture, without any expectations of monetary returns.
It’s a Blood Olympics which is true to its name. Thus, the colleges that had the most donations received awards. The champion was the College of Nursing, followed by the College of Engineering, College of Business and Accountancy, College of Education and the College of Arts and Sciences.
Some students also pledged their commitment to donate blood until January 2011, which is considered as a lean month.
The Blood Olympics was organized by the PNRC-WVRBC and CPU in celebration of Blood Donors Month, with the theme, “Young Donor.”
