The Next Step of UMN Student Donation

By Gabriella Keziafanya

Photo: Universitas Multimedia Nusantara

“Actually, the body has a lot of blood, why don’t you use it to help people out?”

JOURNALISM.com—The good news is that blood donation has remained popular in Indonesia. There will always be some people who go to the nearest public health center or hospital and willing to donate their blood. A lifestyle that is not for everyone.

Indonesia, a country of more than 270 million people, also needs more blood supplies to keep up with the demand. Based on kemkes.go.id, The World Health Organization standard of blood minimum spare is 2 percent from the population in total. In this case, it needs 5,5 million blood plasma bags each year to maintain adequate blood supplies nationwide.

Blood donation can be initiated not only by public health center, clinic, and hospital, but also university student. Typically, Indonesian universities have a student-managed medical unit. Universitas Multimedia Nusantara (UMN) called theirs “UMN Medical Center”—or shorten as UMN Medic.

UMN Medical Center started the blood donation program in 2022, working together with Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) in Tangerang Regency. The first was held on Thursday, September 22nd at Annex Room, PK Ojong D Building Lobby, UMN.

“The first reason [why I proposed the program is] because I am a regular donor. Secondly, I think donation in UMN tends to be associated with money, book, or clothes. They tend to donate belongings, instead of something they have inside their body like blood. Actually, the body has a lot of blood. Why don’t you use it to help other people,” the Head of UMN Medic Gen 8, Geraldi, said, Wednesday (2/11/2022).

Geraldi and team then agreed to create a program which encourages people to donate blood. The blood in the body will be regenerated every three days. In this situation, blood regeneration will nourish the body.

Blood transfusion process was of course be done by professional workers from Indonesian Red Cross, while UMN Medic members supervise the program implementation. Indonesian Red Cross prepared bed, donor bag, and needle, while UMN provided registration tables.

The blood donor activity at time was not only caught students’ interest, but also the UMN internal workers. It is because it was held in the mid of class hour (10.00—14.00) and then the workers joint in.

Geraldi said that students were interested to join as donors because of this activity.

“The students’ enthusiasm and curiosity of the last blood donor event was quite high, even there are some who came to the medic room to asking things about blood donor, such as when was the event, what should be prepared, or questions regarding tattoos or pierces,” he added in the written statement, Tuesday (8/11/2022).

BEM UMN have held such event for public before. Nevertheless, it is good to see the UMN medical unit shared the same concern and decided to hold another program as it is in line with their mission.

When asked about the continuity of this program, Geraldi acknowledged that the decision will depend on the next generation of UMN Medical Center members.

UMN Medical Center has also maintained some collaboration partners for future activities, such as Kelapa Dua Public Health Center and Indonesian Red Cross.