I donated blood
In South Africa you are not allowed to get paid for donating blood.
That puts a lot of pressure on the blood service as they must convince people to donate for no other reason than helping others.
I donated blood about two weeks ago and my encounter with them went like this:
1. while donating blood I got a Coke and a biscuit;
2. the day after I donated I received an SMS thanking me for my contribution;
3. at the end of last week I received a letter signed by the chairperson of the South African National Blood Service thanking me and explaining what is done with my blood.
4. On 21 August, when I am allowed to donate again I will receive a reminder SMS.
So?
They must sell people on the idea of driving to their clinic, allowing them to push a needle into your arm, giving them your blood for free and feeling happy about it. That’s a tall order.
What else can they do?
The letter I received from the national chairperson was great, but not local. It could help their cause if they published an on-line newsletter for the local community.
I would like to read about the old man that just donated his 250th unit (it works out at something like 60 years uninterrupted donation, I think),
or how well we are doing meeting the demand,
or which one of the nice nurses at the clinic got married, pregnant or proposed to.
A bit of community building, I would say.
By the way, most of the blood are used in operations with a substantial portion going to mothers who lost blood during labour.
Donating blood was much more satisfying than trying out vodka, as I told you about a few posts ago!