Nagueños Bleed for Post-Valentine Blood Drive

Eighty-six volunteers literally bled for a cause during a bloodletting activity organized by Naga City councilor David Casper Nathan Sergio as part of the city's Sandugo Program. Blood donors flocked to the city hall lobby on Feb. 16 to participate in the activity.

Sergio was appointed by Mayor Jesse M. Robredo last year as the director of the new blood program to boost the city's efforts in ensuring ample supply of blood transfusions as mandated by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Department of Health (DOH).

The Sangguniang Panlungsod also enacted city ordinance 2009-002, establishing the Sandugo Program as the local mechanism of RA 7719 or the National Blood Services Act of 1994. For compliance, Naga has to come up with blood transfusion reserves amounting to one percent of the total population, or some 1,605 units. The city exceeded this number by 203 units last year, according to Sergio.

Another new feature introduced during the latest bloodletting activity was the use of a blood-typing system to create a community-level database for all blood donors and potential beneficiaries. Sergio explains that blood-typing allows the city government to quickly identify the blood type of citizens in the different barangays, improving the efficiency of blood distribution.

"By encouraging volunteer blood donors to regularly join our bloodletting activities, we can instill a sense of civic pride and responsibility in them. The spirit of volunteerism can also inspire other citizens to do their part and bleed a little for their fellow Nagueños," Sergio says. (Alec Santos)