St John Malaysia host two distinct types of programmes for Blood Donation:
- Annual Nationwide Blood Donation Campaign – normally we organise it for 2-3 days on a specific date. However, for 2024 we intend to have a month-long donation drive allowing our establishments to have some flexibility.
- Blood Donation Suite – this is a collaboration between the National Blood Bank and happens every day. Currently we have 3 blood donation suites.
What was the challenge?
Location: During the COVID-19 pandemic, SJAM was having difficulties securing venues to organise blood donation drives. Normally the blood donation is held at shopping malls, and public places – halls, places of worship, educational institutes, offices. Owners of these premises were reluctant to allow us the utilise the spaces. There are also times we asked to pay to rent the spaces. Or the space provided is very isolated, not suitable – hot, dark, poor ventilation and not convenient for donors. The space should be clean and safe both for donors and to ensure the quality of the blood collected is maintained. We also faced a challenge as some people felt unsafe going to the blood bank which is normally within a public medical facility. Parking facilities are limited due to congestion at these medical facilities. So, we concluded that having a permanent blood donation suite in a mall was one of the best ways to ensure a continuous supply of blood is available.
What was your response?
SJA in Malaysia is incorporated under the Malaysian Parliament Act. Our role is as the auxiliary to the Ministry of Health. This was a good opportunity for SJAM to play a significant role in assisting the government, particularly the Ministry of Health. We had to change the way we organise blood donation and explore diverse ways and methods to achieve our goals. Working hand in hand with the National Blood Bank (PDN-Pusat Darah Negara) is one of the best decisions made by SJAM. SJAM today plays a significant role to assist PDN (Pusat Darah Negara) especially in securing locations for the permanent Blood Donation Suite. This eliminates their responsibility to sign contracts with the malls, funding – utility bills and rental, cleaning services, sourcing for donation in the form of products – goodies bags for successful donors. During COVID-19, the country was in lockdown, and we successfully organised numerous blood donation program throughout the country and were able to obtain 12,000 bags of blood within a year in 2020.
We did this by considering:
- Safety and Convenience: Malls have ample parking space and are easily accessible. Convenient for the community around the mall to head on to multitask – shopping, relaxing and doing good by donating blood. The Blood Donation Suite at 1 Utama Shopping Centre (2nd Largest Mall in Malaysia) and IOI City Mall, Putrajaya (Largest Mall in Malaysia) has high volume of visitors daily. Besides that, the cleanliness and temperature of the suite is well maintained to ensure the blood collected is preserved and maintained before it is transported daily to the National Blood Centre.
- Collaboration: With the permanent location, we can host companies, societies, and strategic partners to have their blood donation program at our premises. This has opened opportunities for SJAM to be the “consultant” for some of these partners. We help to organise and assist them. It has become much easier for us to get support from these partners to help sustain our Blood Donation Suite.
- Donation / Contribution / Support: In the past we had difficulties to source for donation. Today, Donors are able to witness our work and contribute financially or by donating their products to be used as goodies to appreciate donors. We can invite our strategic partners to visit our blood donation suite. Results can be seen immediately as the donation drive is daily.
Which of our St John values does your response link to?
- Openness and Transparency: collaboration with other like-minded establishments and willing to share our success-story without holding back for the greater good.
- Unselfishness: not putting the organisation interest first always but the end results. E.g. SJAM can sometimes pass on the limelight to others so that the results are in favour for SJAM.
- Respect: Treat our Strategic Partners as equal and they too will do the same.
- Excellence: Continuously improve the service for the betterment of everyone so we can be an example of excellence.
What has been your biggest learning from your work this year?
Strategic Partnership has allowed us to work with other organisations to achieve our goals to help the needy. We should always be open to collaborate with other organisations who have the same interest, aim or vision. As our nation progresses and the world is facing new challenges especially in healthcare, we must learn to adapt and be relevant. We need to keep abreast with the latest issues and find opportunities to play a part in it.
You can read the rest of our Annual Report for 2023 here.
