𝐁𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐬 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐝 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫, 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝟑𝟗𝟏 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐛𝐚𝐠𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝

To promote awareness on safe blood donation and help maintain a stable blood supply in the community, the Batch Ilaysaha fourth-year interns of the School of Medical Laboratory Science (SMLS) carried out the second semester leg of their project, “Blood Serves 3.0: Reviving Hope, One Drop at a Time,” at the San Pedro College (SPC) Gymnasium and Philomene Labrecque (PL) Hall on May 10.

First launched in 2024, Blood Serves has been conducted annually and continues to stand as one of SMLS’s flagship humanitarian initiatives aimed at addressing the country’s blood shortage.

This year’s “Blood Serves” project, spearheaded by Project Heads Justin Matthew Estacio, Neil Derek Valencia, Reane Bermudo, and Johaina Nor consists of six phases and has expanded beyond the institution through community-based initiatives.

Phases one and two were conducted in Barangay Duterte and included an orientation followed by a mass blood donation drive, while phases three to six focused on intern capacity building and additional orientations alongside mass blood donation activities held in Barangay Centro Agdao and within the SPC community.

Estacio expressed his appreciation for the project’s continued implementation in its third year, emphasizing its mission and impact on the community.

“For me, I am very happy to have another opportunity for this one because we really believe in the vision of Blood Serves, kung ano pala ang pinaglalaban niya (what it is advocating for), and that is to empower communities all over Davao City to have their own pool of blood bags. We do not solely base it on the number of blood bags we gather. We really want to integrate different barangays and communities and empower them on these processes and these types of events,” Estacio said.

Valencia also discussed the challenges they encountered during implementation, particularly in planning and managing expectations.

“I think it’s normal for every kind of project to undergo such challenges. In our experience, the hardest part of conducting an activity is the planning and, of course, the pressure coming from all sorts of people because a lot of people are depending on this project, and yes, we have to deal with that pressure and also the planning talaga para maging smooth yung events and everything (to make the events and everything run smoothly),” Valencia said.

A total of 214 blood bags were successfully collected during this phase, with additional contributions of 78 bags from Barangay Centro Agdao and 99 bags from Barangay Duterte, bringing the overall total to 391 blood bags across all phases as Blood Serves is set to continue in the next academic year.

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