RIYADH, 1 September 2005 — The Ministry of Health and the SNAS/DHL, a logistics company, have teamed up to run a nationwide blood donation campaign. The drive, titled as “Be A Hero”, was launched by the DHL in response to a call made by the Health Ministry for blood donation.
“The blood collected during this campaign will be supplied to all needy hospitals in the Kingdom,” said Dr. Kamel Mohammed Al-Dosari, a senior specialist working at the MOH Central Blood Bank and Laboratory, said at the inaugural ceremony of the campaign Tuesday night. Paul G. Chader, DHL’s national marketing manager, and Musaed Al-Battal, business development manager, were present.
Dr. Al-Dosari said blood collected would also be used during Haj. The MOH, he said, had been striving to collect adequate quantities of blood to maintain a regular supply and urged the public to respond enthusiastically to the campaign. “This program is in line with the policy of the MOH to encourage individuals and companies to donate blood,” said DHL’s Chader.
“The participation of SNAS/DHL has been part of a strong national response which has previously seen more than 300,000 donors in the Kingdom contribute blood annually. A total of 12,000 of these have been granted the medals of merit for donating their blood 10 times in answer to a royal decree issued by the late King Fahd.”
He said that the life-saving “Be A Hero” campaign had received an enthusiastic response from SNAS/DHL employees. Every donor was asked some health questions to ensure that only disease-free people participate in the donation.
