Jakarta (Antara Bali) - Vice President Jusuf Kalla inaugurated the Taruna Merah Putih (TMP) Blood Donor Activity in Jakarta on Sunday to increase the volume of blood stocks in Indonesia.
"Every people need to donate his or her blood. It can happen that today we donate our blood to others such as friends or relatives, yet on the other day it is us who need blood because we fall ill or get an accident," Kalla when officiating the activities at the HI Traffic Circle said here on Sunday.
Kalla who is also the general chairman of the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) said that donating blood was a need for all because it constituted a good deed.
"People who are seriously ill and receive blood after a surgery operation can likely be cured. Thus, this is a good and important deed for us all," the vice president said.
He said that it was also important for the youths to make the activity of blood donation a healthy lifestyle.
By donating blood, youths could be prevented from a number of diseases and viruses such as syphilis, hepatitis, and HIVE/AIDS.
Before donating their blood, the health of the donors are checked first, he said.
"Youth donors can tell their would-be parent-in laws that they are healthy as their blood is guaranteed clean from syphilis, HIV and Hepatitis," the Vice President said.
Kalla expressed hope that the TMP blood donor activities next year would attract more donors.
A total of 15 thousand blood donors in 25 cities in Indonesia simultaneously donated their blood through the TMP blood donor activities on Sunday.
The cities included Pekanbaru of Riau province, padang of West Sumatra, Medan of North Sumatra, Jakarta, Bogor of West Java, Subang (West Java), Karawang (West Java), Semarang of Central Java, Surabaya of East Java, Magelang of Central Java, East Nusata Tenggara province and Makassar of South Sulawesi province. (WDY)
