Leonika Sari

With health and safety precautions always a top priority, Reblood helps connect potential donors to the blood bank even during the pandemic

Reblood started its journey from a simple app for blood donors to find the nearest blood drive and help remind them to be healthier to pass the pre-donation health checkups. Six people started the idea of the platform and five left due to personal interests. We were students back then, so most of us wanted to work in corporations or pursued a master degree.

The idea of building a blood donors app seemed stupid and crazy to the rest of the team, but, fortunately, one person joined after the breakup and is still here until today. Reblood employs 18 people who are working with a mission to save more lives each day, which is an excitement we get from seeing successful transfusion to patients across different ages and genders from a five-day-old newborn baby to a 75-year-old elder.

Blood is necessary to the human body. During my study at Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember in Surabaya, a fellow student had an emergency procedure that required a lot of blood transfusion. I found out that in many hospitals, often there is not enough blood bags to fulfil all the demands. Is it because of lack of donors? Probably not. Indonesia needs a minimum of 5million blood bags every year, which is only 2 per cent of the population, and I believe we have more than that who are willing to help. Access to information for scheduling, donor requirement, ad many other data are not readily accessible. Moreover, 50 per cent of potential donors would get rejected during the health checkup due to their unhealthy lifestyle habit.

The number of blood donors is decreasing everywhere. The Red Cross in Jakarta reported that, from April to May this year, the number went down about 90 per cent, but the demand is not decreasing. Some Covid-19 patients need convalescent plasma transfusion, which is a therapy using blood plasma donated by the survivors of the virus. So if you know any survivor out there, please ask them to give some soon.

We should give blood routinely as part of a healthy lifestyle because it is not only about saving lives, but also to improve our health.

For every blood donation we do, there is a free health checkup and maintenance checklist to follow to ensure our blood pressure and haemoglobin levels are all good. Most importantly, it serves as a good reminder to have enough sleep of around 8 hours daily, and to eat healthy foods regularly. Find out more healthy living tips and the closest blood drive at the Reblood app, social media, or website.