President Presents Awards To 1,402 Blood Donor Volunteers

Jakarta, Dec 14 (ANTARA) - Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, here on Friday, presented "Satyalencana" commendation awards to blood donor volunteers who have donated blood for at least a hundred times. "The award will be given to 1,402 blood donor volunteers and will be symbolically presented to representatives from 14 Indonesian provinces," Indonesian Red Cross Chairman Jusuf Kalla said. "These blood donors are loyal partners of the Red Cross who routinely donate their blood to help meet the requirements of the organization," he noted. The commendation awards are part of the government`s effort to encourage people to donate blood. Last year, 212 units of the Red Cross collected 2.3 million blood bags, with blood donor volunteers accounting for the highest percentage of the collections. In 2010, the PMI had collected 2.1 million blood bags. "With 2.3 million blood bags collected in this manner, the Red Cross is able to provide a total of about 3.2 million blood bags," Kalla pointed out. "However, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of blood bags available in a country should be at least 2 percent of its total population. That means Indonesia should ideally have 4.8 million blood bags," he said. Kalla stated that the rising number of blood bags in Indonesia was because of an increase in the number of voluntary blood donors. In 2010, the number of voluntarily blood donors was recorded at 1,758,570, up from 1,444,398 in 2009. In 2011, the numbers reached 1,902,702. At the award ceremony, President Yudhoyono was accompanied by Coordinating Minister for People`s Welfare Agung Laksono, Health Minister Nafsiah Mboi, Social Affairs Minister Salim Al Jufri Segaf, and other high-ranking officials.