As highlighted by the Dugong Atenista-Ignaciana theme: “July 31 is Ateneo Heroes Day: Heroes bleed love,” the program celebrates five years of Ateneo heroism this 2011. For five years now, the program has inspired the University community to make 1,570 blood donations. It has benefitted hundreds of unknown recipients of these collected blood units, and made more than a hundred referrals for Ateneans, immediate families and friends. It has facilitated the formation of donors, especially students, to develop a strong sense of volunteerism and new perspective on heroism through blood donation.
The Making of the Hero-maker
Dugong Atenista was launched in July 2007 by the Office of Student Affairs, in cooperation with other partner offices like the Personnel Services Office, as an outreach program which aimed at providing ready and safe blood to the University community in times of medical emergencies. The first two bloodletting activities were done during the outreach days of the Feasts of St. Ignatius de Loyola and St. Francis Xavier. The frequency and scheduling of the drives have been carried out up to now.
In February 2008, the intention of ADNU to sustain the program was formalized in a Memorandum of Agreement signing with Bicol Medical Center, with the BMC Medical Chief and the University President as signatories.
In June of the same year, with the restructuring of OSA as a formation office, Dugong Atenista was redefined as a formation program and incorporated into the Ateneo Student Awareness and Action Program (ASAP!). Since the redefinition of Dugong Atenista as a formation program, donors gathered after each bloodletting activity in a processing session, where their motivations for donating blood were revisited, and their experiences were recounted and deepened using the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm processing tool. It is in this venue where the program strives to motivate the donors to continue donating blood as an important, healthy and heroic act.
Over the years, the program has tried to popularize easy-to-memorize themes highlighting ideas of love and heroism, and inviting Ateneans, especially the students, to participate in the bloodletting activities and develop the formation that they can gain from the program:
· Donate blood and save lives! (2007)
· You Can Be Ignatian Heroes: Donate blood and save lives! (2008)
· Give the Gift of Life (2009)
· I am loved. I give blood. (2010)
· Love. Bleed. Let live. (2010)
· July 31 is Ateneo Heroes Day: Heroes bleed love. (2011)
The Blood Drives and the On-Call Donation Program
Since 2007, the OSA and BMC have conducted nine bloodletting drives. The first bloodletting activity of the program already drew 86 donors, which according to BMC is impressive for a start. This figure grew year by year, now reaching a total of 1,570 donations in eight bloodletting activities.
Dugong Atenista recorded the highest number of recruited donors in one setting by a private organization in Bicol four times: in July 2008 (200), in July 2010 (200), in November 2010 (227) and in the latest drive (263).
To date, the Dugong Atenista program has made referrals benefitting more than a hundred members of the ADNU community, relatives and friends out of the donated blood in the bloodletting activities.
The on-call donation component of the program has also become more effective now in responding to special cases (dengue, etc.).
These achievements have been recognized both by the Department of Health-Bicol and the BMC for its efforts in concretizing the National Blood Services Act of 1994 in the campus.
The Formation of Donors and Volunteers
“I am loved. I give blood.” This Ignatian Spirituality-inspired theme in 2010 can summarize the experiences of the blood donors who have attended the thanksgiving and experience-processing sessions conducted by OSA every after bloodletting activity since 2008.
To appreciate the motivations and impact of the program on the donors, the inputs of the 2010 volunteers during a processing session can be reviewed. They positively claimed that they donated blood to help save lives, among other noble and personal reasons.
To save a life by giving a part of oneself was the most common motivation for the donors. This was also articulated by Dugong Atenista regular donor Manuel Sambo, Media Studies Laboratory custodian. “I am a blood donor; I save lives,” he said, echoing the popular tagline of BMC’s blood services program.
Similarly, University Treasurer Ramon Nonito Ayo, shared that his awareness of the importance of blood donation motivated him to donate blood. He recounted the first time he donated blood to his inaanak who had dengue fever, an experience which inspired him to make regular blood donation a personal pledge. He described how good it feels knowing that he forms part of the recipients through his blood which now flow into their veins.
Political Science senior student John Eduard Alejo explained that he donated out of unconditional love for others. He said that he does not expect even for a “Thank you” from those who may benefit from the blood extracted from him.
Aside from charity, Alex Pilapil, DACA Laboratory custodian, pointed out the benefit of regularly donating blood for him. He said that he has been encouraged to adopt a healthy lifestyle so that he could be qualified the next time he donates blood.
Katherine Tormes of BMC affirmed this statement as one of the advantages of blood donation. For a donor to be qualified, she explained that one must have stable blood pressure, in the right weight, and free from illnesses and sexually transmitted diseases.
Many student-donors shared that the first challenge for them was to overcome the fear of needle or the pain that it would take during the blood extraction.
For instance, Gil Andru O. Abrazado, a Nursing student, had to put off his plan to donate blood in December 2007 because his fear of needle. However, his desire to participate in Dugong Atenista outgrew his phobia the next semester when he successfully donated blood for the first time. Now a four-time donor, he wrote in his reflection paper that he would not mind experiencing the pain again and again because he believes that “there is always someone in need, so there is always a reason to bleed.”
On a similar note, Mary Ann I. Santos, a Nursing student, wrote that the little “pain that one would feel with the prick of a needle is nothing compared to the fulfillment the donation will give.”
One of the important successes of the Dugong Atenista program is the strong presence in all drives. The student sector comprised about 75 to 90 percent of the total number of donors in each drive. The program also clicked among student organizations as at least 60 percent of the donors represented at least 30 student organizations since 2008. Aside from being the largest donor-sector, students and student organizations have also helped both in the campaign and in the conduct of bloodletting of Dugong Atenista. The Donor Care, composed of trained Nursing students, have assisted the BMC phlebotomists in extracting blood from and taking care of the donors. Hence, the program has become a hands-on training of selected Nursing students on a course-related field.
The OSA has also tapped student organizations like Ateneo Red Cross Youth and Ateneo Dance Club as volunteers during pre-registration of potential donors and actual blood drives.
It is also interesting to note the figures of regular and first time donors. In the most recent drive, for example, 50.19 percent of the total figure donated at least once in previous years, while 49.81 percent bled for the first time. These figures suggest a parallel rise in the number of frequent and first time donors.
In 2010, OSA released and awarded the donors who have bled four to nine times. One faculty was able to donate in all nine drives. The OSA interprets the first figure is an affirmation that the program has already developed a pool of regular donors. In fact, in the exit registration, most of the donors expressed willingness to donate blood in next scheduled bloodletting activity. Many of these donors are coming from the student sector, but also from the employees and the alumni who had participated in the drives during their college years.
On the other hand, the rise in the number of first time donors (6.74 percent growth rate), OSA explains, is a success indicator of the program campaign’s effectiveness in developing positive public knowledge, attitudes and beliefs towards blood donation, stressing on its importance and safety.
Together, the parallel growths of regular and first time donors are important in ensuring the sustainability of the Dugong Atenista in the coming years.
The Heroism Continues
And after five years of overwhelming support from the University community, the OSA and BMC understand a clear message: the community needs Dugong Atenista. In response to this, the organizers of the program is poised to continue serving the community by providing the community safe and ready supply of blood through the bloodletting drives and recruitment of on-call donors. It is poised to intensify its efforts to challenge and form Ateneans to bleed as a selfless act of volunteerism, an expression of unconditional love for others and as a way of thanking God for His blessing.
The next bloodletting activity in scheduled on December 3, 2011, in celebration of the Feast of St. Francis Xavier. For inquiries about the program, please visit OSA, second floor of Xavier Hall, Ateneo de Naga University.
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