D1020 Blood Donor Day
Fri, Jun 12th 2015 at 9:00 am - 4:00 pm
District Blood Donor Day
Those present at the District Council Meeting in Lockerbie will recall the presentation from Mohindra Dhall of the RC of Edinburgh regarding the District's intention to hold a Blood Donor Day on Friday, 12th June 2015. This will take place at the Lauriston Place Blood Donation Centre, Edinburgh between 9.00 am and 4.00 pm and is exclusively for District 1020 volunteer donors. Rotarians (under 65) plus spouses, relatives and friends, are warmly invited to participate.
Please do give this excellent initiative, which will help to save lives, your support. A poster and a sign-up sheet are attached. Please let Mohindra know of numbers likely to participate. Further details can be obtained directly from Mohindra (dhallmohindra@gmail.com) if required. Below are some facts that might prove helpful to you.
Note that this D1020 Blood Donor Day coincides with the inauguration of the Jawhar Blood Bank in India which is being supported by several Rotary Clubs in our District. Our Blood Donor Day also is on the eve of the UN Blood Donors' Day.
The following Clubs in D1020 have been identified by Mohindra as being within a travel distance of one hour from Edinburgh and will be best placed to avail themselves of this great opportunity of service to others:
Bathgate, Biggar, Braids, Corstorphine, Currie Balerno, Dalkeith, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Breakfast, eClub of Southern Scotland, Esk Valley, Falkirk, Galashiels, Grangemouth, Haddington, Kilsyth, Larbert, Leith, Linlithgow & Bo'ness, Linlithgow Grange, Livingston, Loanhead & Roslin, Longniddry, Murrayfield Crammond, Musselburgh, North Berwick, Peebles, Penicuik, Polmont, Portobello, South Queensferry, Tranent, Vale of Carron and Whitburn.
The other 27 Clubs not listed above may wish to consider setting up a local Blood Transfusion event on or around 12th June in order to link in with the D1020 initiative. Please let Mohindra know of any such plans (dhallmohindra@gmail.com). At the very least, please encourage members to drop into their local Blood Donor Centre and inform Mohindra of the number of blood donations achieved.
As background information, it will be helpful to know that the Jawhar project is located some 100 Km from Mumbai. The local Rotary District 3140 conducted a survey and established that the maternal mortality rate is as high as almost 4 in every 1,000 mothers. Sadly, there are presently no post-natal facilities in this remote tribal area and there is no blood bank attached to the maternity cottage hospital at Jawhar. It takes over eight hours to fetch a bottle of blood and accordingly there is no support available immediately in case of emergency at the delivery of a baby. Rotary has raised grants totalling $96,950 and the Government of India has agreed to construct the building (costing $200,000) to host the Blood Bank which Indian Rotarians are supporting. This initiative will absolutely save many lives. It is very fitting that Rotarians in D1020 stand side-by-side with our fellow Rotarians in India to mark this superb development.