Saturday, 14 September 2013 00:00
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The Postgraduate Institute of Management Alumni (PIMA) organised a Blood Donation Drive recently with a call to renew the need for Sri Lankans to continue donating blood. The event was held at the Postgraduate Institute of Management located in Borella, Colombo.
“We realised that most of us were losing the motivation to donate blood since the end of the war. In most cases it was the need to support our forces that drove people to save lives by sharing their blood. However, the reality is that the need for blood in the country has not waned and as fellow citizens we felt the need to revive the practice,” said PIMA – Blood Donation Campaign Project Chairperson Tharaka Tennekoon.
About 97% of the 350,000 pints collected by the National Blood Transfusion Service (NTBS) annually are from voluntary non-remunerated donations. As blood can be only be stored for a limited time before use, there is a constant need for safe blood to replenish expired stocks.
The continuous need for blood, commonly associated with the miracle of life, is now mostly needed for women with complications due to pregnancy, children with suffering from severe anaemia, people afflicted to severe trauma following accidents, cancer treatment, surgeries and any other urgent need of blood.
It is rarely known that one pint of blood donated can be used to save three lives. PIMA says it felt it a need, a duty, to communicate this to all caring countrymen willing to help one another.
“The opportunity to save three lives at once does not come to you every day. A person may not be able to achieve such a noble task even in a lifetime. Simply donating 1 pint of blood can save 3 lives. This benevolent gesture, simple as it may seem, is a life saver to the beneficiary. I would like to thank everyone who donated blood at the event and urge all to continue this meritorious act on a regular basis,” said Tennekoon. Although this is the first time PIMA had organised a Blood Donation Drive, Tennekoon said the team commits to make it part of the annual CSR activities of the association.
The Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM) is Sri Lanka’s premier post graduate degree awarding body locally with international acclaim. The institute, affiliated to the Sri Jayewardenepura University, offers programs in Master of Business Administration, MBA in Human Resource Management, MBA in Banking and Finance, Master of Customs Administration, MBA in International Trade and Logistics, Master of Public Administration. PIM also conducts sort after doctoral programs in Doctor of Philosophy (PhD.) – Business Administration and Public Administration.
