MINNESOTA-TABUK MEDICAL OUTREACH. Doctors Hazel Antoinette Sarol (right) and Henrietta Bagayao (with hair band) were among the four doctors who volunteered their services during the medical mission held at the Casigayan Elementary School, Tabuk City, Kalinga on February 9. The medical mission which offered blood sugar and blood pressure screening, medical examinations, OB-Gyne and dermatology consultations and free medicines for children and adults was funded by residents of Minnesota, USA through the efforts of Nurse Verna Agujo, the 1981valedictorian of the school, who now works and lives in that state.**Photo by Estanislao Albano, Jr.
TABUK CITY, Kalinga – This province is dependent on other provinces for its blood needs.
According to Kalinga Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC) chapter administrator Glorina Diaz, at the moment, the chapter which is supposed to be one of the two storekeepers of blood in the province has only one unit type A and two units type B.
In order to serve the province’s population, the chapter and the Kalinga Provincial Hospital (KPH) should have 200 units of 500 cc bags a month, Diaz said.
Diaz explains that because of the chronic lack of blood stock in the province, she has been borrowing from her counterparts in the provinces of Isabela and Cagayan for years now.
“Since I have not been able to replace the borrowed blood stock over many years, it has come to the point when I am ashamed to approach them when we are in need of blood,” Diaz told the Zigzag Weekly.
Diaz blames the problem on the unwillingness of people in the province to donate blood.
“It looks like people here still adhere to the old Kalinga expression ‘maysa a tedted ti dara, maysa a nuang’ (a drop of blood is worth one carabao). The problem is cultural. We have difficulty convincing people here to donate not even when we tell them it will not only save lives but will also improve their blood circulation,” Diaz said.
She informed that for all the massive information campaign for blood donation waged by the PNRC in the province since the Blood Donation Act went into effect in the late 90s, only two of the eight towns of the province conduct regular bloodletting activities. These are Pasil and Balbalan.
Vice Governor Allen Jesse Mangaoang who chairs the newly formed Provincial Blood Council contradicts Diaz insisting that the difficulty of getting people in the province to donate their blood has nothing to do with the culture.
He declared that there is lack of aggressiveness on the part of those campaigning for blood donations and likewise the inadequacy of information campaign on the advantages of donating blood.
He reasoned that the Northern Luzon Blood Zone in the Cagayan Valley Medical Center (CVMC) has penetrated even the most remote Balbalan and Pasil barangays and was able to draw blood donations from residents there
“As mayor of Balbalan, I was a Hall of Famer in the National Sandugo Awards because for three consecutive years, three barangays in the town were able get blood donations of at least 30 units annually. Four of our barangay captains also received awards by conducting at least two bloodlettings and collect at least 60 units a year,” Mangaoang said.
Mangaoang said that the council has already organized an information education campaign committee that will explain to the public that when one donates blood, one does not only save lives but gets his old blood cells replenished.
He is confident that once “prospective donors will understand the meaning of bloodletting,” Kalinga’s dependence on CVMC for three-fourths of its blood requirements will cease. **
TABUK CITY, Kalinga – This province is dependent on other provinces for its blood needs.
According to Kalinga Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC) chapter administrator Glorina Diaz, at the moment, the chapter which is supposed to be one of the two storekeepers of blood in the province has only one unit type A and two units type B.
In order to serve the province’s population, the chapter and the Kalinga Provincial Hospital (KPH) should have 200 units of 500 cc bags a month, Diaz said.
Diaz explains that because of the chronic lack of blood stock in the province, she has been borrowing from her counterparts in the provinces of Isabela and Cagayan for years now.
“Since I have not been able to replace the borrowed blood stock over many years, it has come to the point when I am ashamed to approach them when we are in need of blood,” Diaz told the Zigzag Weekly.
Diaz blames the problem on the unwillingness of people in the province to donate blood.
“It looks like people here still adhere to the old Kalinga expression ‘maysa a tedted ti dara, maysa a nuang’ (a drop of blood is worth one carabao). The problem is cultural. We have difficulty convincing people here to donate not even when we tell them it will not only save lives but will also improve their blood circulation,” Diaz said.
She informed that for all the massive information campaign for blood donation waged by the PNRC in the province since the Blood Donation Act went into effect in the late 90s, only two of the eight towns of the province conduct regular bloodletting activities. These are Pasil and Balbalan.
Vice Governor Allen Jesse Mangaoang who chairs the newly formed Provincial Blood Council contradicts Diaz insisting that the difficulty of getting people in the province to donate their blood has nothing to do with the culture.
He declared that there is lack of aggressiveness on the part of those campaigning for blood donations and likewise the inadequacy of information campaign on the advantages of donating blood.
He reasoned that the Northern Luzon Blood Zone in the Cagayan Valley Medical Center (CVMC) has penetrated even the most remote Balbalan and Pasil barangays and was able to draw blood donations from residents there
“As mayor of Balbalan, I was a Hall of Famer in the National Sandugo Awards because for three consecutive years, three barangays in the town were able get blood donations of at least 30 units annually. Four of our barangay captains also received awards by conducting at least two bloodlettings and collect at least 60 units a year,” Mangaoang said.
Mangaoang said that the council has already organized an information education campaign committee that will explain to the public that when one donates blood, one does not only save lives but gets his old blood cells replenished.
He is confident that once “prospective donors will understand the meaning of bloodletting,” Kalinga’s dependence on CVMC for three-fourths of its blood requirements will cease. **
