A simple blood donation can save a life. Donner Sang Compter is an NGO that links donors to patients.
“Thanks to the seventy-two strangers who donated their blood to me, I am alive today and able to play the drums again!” says Rawad Haddad, a patient who needed blood. Indeed, what a blessing it is to feel the oneness with a stranger among the millions of people in Lebanon. That person may have received life-saving blood transfusions because of your initiative. In the eyes of the receiver, blood donations are the biggest jackpots they will ever win.
If you’re asking yourself how to be a good compatriot, friend or change maker, one of the things that you could start doing is donating blood on a monthly basis. In Lebanon, Donner Sang Compter (DSC), a non-profit NGO has dedicated its mission to this cause: ‘Donating blood without asking anything in return!’
About DSC
Originally, DSC’s creation goes back to an initiative made by a young Lebanese Scout Yorgui Teyrouz, a pharmacy student, who remarked on the need to donate blood in Lebanon. Drafting a small database with his friends, he was fervently willing to create a change around him. He immediately created a group on Facebook in order to link potential donors to patients in need of blood.
Rejoicing in this accomplishment, and after three years of dedication to this cause, it grew out to be an NGO saving 12000 people so far!
“Donner Sang Compter” comes from French. The original expression, written with an “s” (Sans), is found in a prayer book of a Scout, insinuating about voluntary giving without awaiting anything in return.
« Seigneur Jésus, apprenez-nous À être généreux
À vous servir comme vous le méritez À donner sans compter
À combattre sans souci des blessures À travailler sans chercher le repos
À nous dépenser sans attendre d’autre récompense
Que celle de savoir que nous faisons votre sainte Volonté »
While “Sang” with a “g” is French for blood. This trivia plays a big importance in indicating the NGO’s objective: To give blood without asking anything in return.
DSC is a Lebanese NGO that raises awareness about voluntary blood donation and provides blood for patients in need, through a centralized database and frequent blood donations campaigns. Its vision is to reach 100% donations in Lebanon. It fulfills more than 500 blood demands per month, divided among all the Lebanese hospitals. This NGO is also the link between all the Lebanese citizens in emergency cases.
Benefits of Blood Donation
Donating blood is not only beneficial for the patients in need, but for the donor’s body as well, especially if the donor gives blood on a regular basis. It would detect medical conditions such as hypertension, anemia, blood-borne diseases and ongoing infections. It would also reduce cancer risks, especially those related to blood (leukemia and lymphoma) and reduce cardiovascular events (heart attacks and strokes). By replenishing blood, the bone marrow would be active, and regenerate red blood cells on a frequent basis.
With each blood donation, DSC not only provides medical care but also re-enforce the solidarity between all Lebanese people chaining them with a brotherhood bracelet that the NGO created.
Volunteering
Volunteering for this cause is a motive that gets the NGO’s primordial work done. Daily and monthly commitments of students, coming from all Lebanon and from different educational backgrounds, are continuing to build the dream that Teyrouz had slowly created.
After passing a medical knowledge test, volunteers are responsible for organizing blood drives in universities in collaboration with hospitals and medical institutions. They are also divided into teams where their team- leaders will be in charge of them over the span of a year. The activities of the team would include social media monitoring, creating a timetable over the course of the year, not forgetting the logistic requirements and the medical equipment that are to be well preserved.
All these accomplishments prove to the Lebanese society that failures are not eternal. They can arise in a fruitful way depending on the perspective adopted. Yorgui’s case benefited not only his journey but all of the Lebanese society.
FACTS: More than 6000 donors are included on the database of urgent demands at the DSC call center. On-site donations at universities can provide 6000 units of blood per year. Each unit of blood can be separated into red blood cells, white blood cells, plasma and platelets. Blood transfusions need specific units of blood depending on each donation provided.
Any patient in need may call the DSC call center at 00961 3 314868 for donating blood or receiving blood donations.
