USM, PENANG, 12 May 2018 – As a part of the Sustainable Community Outreach Programme, 76 students under the Masters of Business Administration (MBA) programme from the Graduate School of Business (GSB), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) recently organised a blood donation and health awareness event themed ‘Give the Gift of Life’.  

The half-day event was organised in collaboration with Penang Adventist Hospital, Penang Thalassaemia Society, Pusat Sumber Transplan of Hospital Pulau Pinang, and Pusat Sejahtera USM.  

The students involved were from the Business Issues & Sustainable Development and Business Ethics & Governance classes under the supervision of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Salmi Mohd. Isa and Dr. Ooi Say Keat.

According to Salmi, the event was a huge success as a total of 70 packets of blood were collected over a 5-hour period from 70 successful donors, a majority of them coming from USM students.

“We received a great response as there were many more of the campus community who came to donate, but were not qualified or rejected due to health reasons and underweight concerns.”

“A community outreach programme such as this will always be GSB’s continuous CSR effort in giving back to society, which was started back in 2015,” said Salmi, who is also the GSB Deputy Dean (Academic, Student & Alumni).

Meanwhile, Ooi said that this “Give the Gift of Life” campaign was carried out in conjunction with World Blood Donor Day, and it was aimed at raising the awareness and cultivating a voluntary blood donation culture among the campus community.

“Hopefully, this meaningful blood donation drive can be a flagship programme of GSB in helping the university students realise how a selfless act can save a life, and thus bringing great impact to the community,” he said.

The president of the organising committee, Lim Rong Yao added that besides blood donation, they also focus on creating awareness among the community in setting up booths to disseminate information on blood health and disorders such as thalassemia and anaemia.

The programme received sponsorship support from several companies, notably Mahajak Trio Electronic Sdn. Bhd., LSI Asia Sdn. Bhd., Ee-Lian Enterprise (M) Sdn. Bhd. and BP Diagnostic Centre Sdn. Bhd.

Text: Tan Ewe Hoe