Reserves of four blood types are a concern. The poor, young, elderly and migrants must be priorities for Catholics.
The Portuguese Federation of Benevolent Blood Donors (FEPODABES) alerted the population to the importance of only blood especially in festive season, when the needs increase ea donor availability decreases.
In the campaign launched today, FEPODABES says that the data known on Monday about the reserva of the Portuguese Institute of Blood and Transplantation (IPST) are worrying, highlighting that the appeal focuses in particular on blood types O+, O–, B- and A-.
According to federation data, in reserves at IPST the most missing blood on Monday was B-with an appeal for immediate donation, followed by A- and O+, which is estimated to last one to two days, and the AB- e O-, which lasts three to five days.
However, in the national reserve (hospitals) all blood types are in normal levels, in need of “regular donations”.
The region most lacking is the Algarve, with a reserve of three to five days of type AB+ and O+ blood.
With this campaign – “This Christmas give your best gift, give blood, give life!” -, the federation warns that blood reserve levels “need to be continually reinforced”, stressing that “each donation makes a difference in saving lives”.
Quoted in a statement, the president of FEPODABES, Alberto Mota, recalls that “the country has entered into”, a scenario that is expected to reduce the availability of blood donors, and reinforced the appeal to donate among all healthy citizens.
The federation recalls that blood donation is a constant need and is a vital gesture of solidarity that can save up to three lives per donation.
“In Portugal, stock levels are sometimes low, reinforcing the importance of new donors”, he adds.
To donate blood, citizens need to be between 18 years old – at 17 they can donate, but with a parent – and 65 years old, but the age limit for the first donation is 60 years old. You must weigh at least 50 kg, be in good health and have healthy lifestyle habits.
The President of FEPODABES also warns of the reduction and aging of the number of regular donors and adds: “It is a daily struggle for younger people to start donating regularly”.
Another appeal to Catholics
Also today, Tuesday, the president of the Portuguese Episcopal Conference asked Catholics make the most of Christmas approach of the “victims of poverty that become invisible”, young people jobless, elderly abandoned or “migrants who encounter distrust, indifference and closed doors.”
In his Christmas message, José Ornelas hopes that the date “awakens in the hearts of each person” the “desire to build a fairer society where respect for human dignity prevails”.
In particular, the bishop of Leiria-Fátima also asks the faithful to have a “proximity friendly and active” by “families consumed by the high cost of living”, by “young people who do not find a future due to lack of decent employment and housing” or by “the elderly who live in the silence of abandonment”, in addition to “migrants who encounter distrust, indifference and closed doors”.
In the text, José Ornelas remembers the “arrested who live forgotten”, the “sick who suffer, in body and soul, the fragility of life”, the “healthcare professionals exhausted people who seek to respond to constraints in access to services” or those “innocent who suffer the damage of wars, injustice and oblivion”.
“Christmas is approaching, which we celebrate in the midst of frightening darkness, echoes of war and fears of security, destruction, misery and death”, but the date also invites “tenderness”, “respect and attentive care”, with “horizons of future and hope”, writes the bishop, considering that, at this time, we live “a time full of challenges and tribulations, in Portugal and in the world”.
Christians must “listen to the cries of so many children and the dramas spread around the world, with eyes of compassion and active faith”, says the head of the Catholic Church in Portugal.
“It was in this world that God chose to be born: not in a golden nativity scene, but in the fragility and on the periphery where humanity lives torn apart” and, therefore, “the peace that we need and that we must bring to the world, is a peace that must come from proximity, from bridges and concrete gestures”, warned the president of the CEP.
In this sense, the real nativity scene The one that Catholics should pay attention to is “the one where all those who have lost hope fit”.
“The peace that we need and that we must bring to the world (…) begins in our homes, in our families, in our relationships, in our communities and on our streets”, he considered.
May “this Christmas awaken in the hearts of each of us the desire to build a fairer society where respect for human dignity prevails”, added José Ornelas.
