Just before midnight, the phone rang at the home of a civil servant\n(ASN) official in North Jakarta. One of his staff members was scheduled\nfor surgery the next day and needed blood. The following morning, the\nIndonesian Red Cross (PMI) office was filled with tired but determined\nfaces. Colleagues came in turn, a sub-district head was also present,\nall for one purpose: to save a life. Such incidents are not unusual.\nAlmost every day, PMI receives requests for blood from families of\npatients struggling to stay alive. This story reminds us of one\nimportant thing: behind every available blood bag, there is always a\nvoluntary act by someone willing to help another person.<\/p>\n
Interestingly, donors often do not know the recipients of their\nblood. Once donated, the blood is not immediately given to a specific\npatient. It undergoes a process of screening, filtering, and separation\ninto various components, which are then distributed according to patient\nneeds. Thus, blood donation is not merely a relationship between two\npeople, the donor and the recipient. It is a humanitarian chain that\nbrings together people who do not know each other in a mutual\ncooperation (gotong royong) to save lives. The momentum of World Blood\nDonor Day, commemorated every 14 June, serves as an important reminder\nof the meaning of such solidarity. In hospitals across the country,\nblood is needed daily for traffic accident victims, cancer patients,\nthalassemia sufferers, kidney failure patients, and mothers experiencing\ncomplications during childbirth.<\/p>\n
The problem of blood in Indonesia remains a major challenge. The\nWorld Health Organisation (WHO) estimates the ideal blood requirement\nfor a country is around two per cent of the total population. With\nIndonesia\u2019s population having exceeded 280 million, the national blood\nrequirement is estimated to reach around 5.6 million bags per year.\nAlthough PMI and various blood transfusion units in hospitals manage to\nmeet most of this need, blood stock shortages still occur in various\nregions. The issue is not only related to the number of donors, but also\nto distribution, transport access, and limited blood storage facilities,\nespecially in non-urban areas.<\/p>\n
The situation in Jakarta provides an interesting snapshot. Data from\nthe PMI DKI Jakarta Provincial Blood Donor Unit in 2025 shows there were\n367,067 donors throughout the year, an average of about 30,589 donors\neach month. However, during the month of Ramadan, the number of donors\ndropped to around 20,712 people. This decline shows that blood\navailability is highly dependent on public participation and awareness.\nIn the capital, the daily blood requirement reaches approximately 1,200\nbags. This figure can be met relatively easily due to the high\nconcentration of population and health facilities. However, a different\nsituation is still encountered in various regions far from health\nservice centres. In many non-urban areas, patients must wait longer to\nobtain blood due to limited stock and distribution.<\/p>\n
Therefore, the blood issue cannot be understood purely as a medical\nproblem. It is also a social problem that depends on the community\u2019s\nwillingness to help one another.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/blood-donation-as-a-form-of-modern-mutual-cooperation-1781340953", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }