The first time I donated blood was on August 20, 1987 at Kathmandu Bishal Bazar Lions Club. Since then, I have donated blood 132 times. In College, I read a book called English for College. In that book there was short story called ‘The Blood Donor’. It was about Joe Thomas who donated blood to save many people’s lives. After reading about him, I was encouraged and motivated to donate blood myself. Since I acknowledged that you can simply save a person’s life by giving blood.
One day, I went to the blood bank. There was shortage of blood and one man was afraid to give his own blood to his wife because he thought something would happen to him. After I saw that, I decided to give a presentation on blood donation to many people, informing them that giving blood won’t hurt you, it will only help and save someone’s life.
I donated blood 19 times in 1 year, 6 times in different countries including United States, Canada, England, Bermuda, Macao and Ireland, and platelets 13 times in New York. In all these places I encouraged the Nepalese Community to donate blood with me. A lot of people would travel to different countries to see new places, but I travel to different countries just to donate blood. I would go in the morning and come back at night with my own resources and money. I realized that I am able to donate blood many times therefore; I encourage people to donate blood at least once a year and let them know it’s for a good cause:
1. January 5, 2014 Whole blood donated in New York
2. March 10, 2014 Whole blood donated in London
3. May 2, 2014 Whole blood donated in Bermuda
4. May 17, 2014 Platelets donated in New York
5. May 27, 2014 Platelets donated in New York
6. June 5, 2014 Platelets donated in New York
7. June 20, 2014 Platelets donated in New York
8. July 4, 2014 Whole blood donated in Macao
9. August 19, 2014 Platelets donated in New York
10. August 31, 2014 Platelets donated in New York
11. September 7, 2014 Platelets donated in New York
12. September 20, 2014 Platelets donated in New York
13. September 27, 2014 Whole blood donated in Canada
14. October 10, 2014 Platelets donated in New York
15. October 22, 2014 Platelets donated in New York
16. November 24, 2014 Whole blood in Ireland
17. December 5. 2014 Platelets donated in New York
18. December 19, 2014 Platelets donated in New York
19. December 30, 2014 Platelets donated in New York
In United States, to encourage the Nepalese Communities in different states including New York, Massachusetts, California, Indiana, Maryland, I have been there to donate blood with them.
In the last seven years, inspired Nepalese People in 18 states including New York, Illinois, California, Colorado, North Carolina, Texas, Alabama, Florida, Connecticut, Georgia, Ohio, Mississippi, Tennessee, Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Delaware, Indiana, have donated blood at least 5,000 units.
I have sponsored blood drive with New York Blood Center in Queens, New York in the following dates:
09/06/2009 02/27/2010 03/28/2010 02/26/2011 03/26/2011 02/25/2012 02/23/2013 05/25/2013 01/05/2014 05/15/2014 09/28/2014
I have sponsored blood drive with American Red Cross in Queens, New York in the following dates:
09/25/2008 12/28/2008 04/26/2009 12/06/2009 09/26/2010 12/12/2010 11/27/2011 09/25/2011 05/08/2011 05/13/2012 12/16/2012 07/06/2013 05/11/2014
In the last seven years, inspired Nepalese people in 19 countries including United States, UAE, Belgium, Australia, Oman, Portugal, India, Hong Kong, Qatar, Kuwait, Cyprus, Canada, Burma, Macao, Japan, England, Bermuda, Ireland, Baharain, have donated blood more than 6,000 units.
To encourage more people to donate blood I have done various activities. These are the following activities.
1. On December 5, 1990, the day I donated blood for 16th time, Bhaktapur Suryabinayak Leo Club sponsored a blood drive and a 31 day long nationwide bicycle tour with a slogan ‘Please donate blood at least once a year’ to promote the blood donation awareness. I, along with two other friends, traveled 2200 Kilometers of the country.
2. I am also using social medias such as Facebook.com to encourage about 4,500 of my listed friends to donate blood at least once a year in their birthday since the last four years.
3. I have also printed ‘I donate blood 3 to 6 times a year’ on both sides of my car which, I know from personal conversation with the people who saw, it, encourage them to donate blood.
4. In 2009, I have published and distributed 1,000 books about blood donation and distributed 5,000 pens that said ‘Please donate blood’.
5. In September 2013, I donated money to District Education Office of Kabhrepalanchok to have a essay contest. The topic of the contest was the importance of blood donation of three hundred schools, 600 students had participated in this contest.
6. On July 20, 2008, I made a booth about the blood donation campaign in my neighborhood street fair by Hicksville Chambers of Commerce in New York.
7. In 1990, I was the founder member of Blood Donors Association of Nepal.
8. In 2009, I was the founder president of Blood Donors of America.
9. In 2014, I am the founder president of International Nepalese Blood Donors.
10. In 1991 to 1999, I was the blood donation committee chairman in Lions and Leo Clubs of Nepal. During that time, we collected more than 10,000 units of blood.
11. When there was shortage of blood in Nepal, the volunteers gave blood or motivated to donate blood to others. I honored these three volunteers with 50,000 rupees and the reporter with 25,000 rupees through the chief guest, Vice President of Nepal.
12. In the suburb areas of Nepal, there were blood shortages for the patients. Dr. Subash Chaudhary from Rautahat and Dr. Jhapendra Pokharel from Bajura were treating these patients by donating their own blood to them because of the blood shortage. I rewarded them both with 10,000 rupees for doing a great job.
Sincerely,
Arjun Prasad Mainali