It all began in Zimbabwe in 1989 when
a pilot programme was introduced to retain young blood donors. The
concept rapidly spread to other parts of Africa (South Africa, Togo,
Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Malawi, Botswana) and across the world to
the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Haiti and elsewhere.
And we now have "International Club 25, one world…one blood" linking
young blood donors together from all countries! But remember, membership
may also embrace young people who cannot donate blood but choose
to volunteer their services to the overall aims of the Club 25 programme.
A great story!
About ten years ago in two blood centres in Zimbabwe (Harare
and Masvingo), a pilot programme was introduced to retain a pool
of young regular blood donors. Entitled “Pledge 25”
the strategy involved the setting up of donor clubs, targeting young
people just leaving school. The pledge required members to commit
to making 25 donations after leaving school and each club had a
patron who had donated blood more than 100 times to serve as a model
for the members.
Peer support became a crucial element as the clubs helped young
people talk about their experiences and to discuss issues related
to healthy lifestyles. Members were given educational materials
and the promotion of safe blood donation and healthy lifestyles
was soon finding its way into the whole community.
A growing concept!
The concept rapidly gained a foothold in Zimbabwe and has spread
to other parts of Africa (South Africa, Togo, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia,
Malawi, Botswana) and across the world to include the Philippines,
Indonesia, India, Haiti and elsewhere. Various models of the original
Club idea exist but generally they follow a similar structure:
The Club elects a national or provincial administrative committee
to organize activities, eg., a national youth blood donor day, or
in recent times, a World Blood Donor Day celebration
Peer promoters are elected to assist the blood service in the
recruitment of voluntary blood donors from low-risk populations
and in turn the blood service supervises and supports the club
Operationally the Club functions according to local needs but examples
from Philippines, South Africa, Malawi, Singapore provide clues
on setting up a Club 25 and responsibilities of club members. The
education of young people about risk behaviour to ensure they remain
free of HIV/AIDS is one of the advantages of Club 25 Programmes,
and data from South Africa National Blood Service (SANBS) helps
to underline the significance of Club 25 in this important area.
Within four years of implementing Club 25 Programme SANBS reported
35,193 active donors on Club 25 donor panel and 177,426 donations
from Club 25 members!
Similarly in the Philippines the Pledge 25 programme (based on original
Zimbabwe model)has gone from strength to strength in three districts
with membership from 1999 to 2005 increasing steadily.
The key to the success is the youth! According to Renato Silao, participant at the recent colloquium
in Chile one of the keys to the success of the Pledge 25 Programme
is the Red Cross Youth Department itself:
“I was impressed with the sharing of ideas at the recent colloquium:
But I came away thinking how fortunate we are in the Philippines
in having a dynamic and active youth programme within the Red Cross
structure. Where youth programmes are active within the Red Cross
and Red Crescent Societies I urge all leaders to consider the value
of implementing Club/Pledge 25 Programmes because the benefits to
the national societies and community at large are simply staggering.
What starts as an entry point for involvement in Red Cross work
rapidly spreads to a wider function in society thus providing young
people with a real sense of belonging, a sense of recognition and
leadership: and now through the creation of a new International
Club 25 network we are poised world-wide for young people to take
centre stage in real partnerships for sake of human development.
Club/Pledge 25 clearly has the potential to deliver lots more than
regular blood donations!” said Renato.
Youth
