The Annual Day of Blood Donor carried out by HOPE Ukraine in Kiev was great! 170 donors took part in it - mostly our brothers and sisters from Kiev church. 50 liters of blood was collected.
And tomorrow it will find new strength in future generations. Because, it is a River of Life...
Number of blood donors has been declined extremely in Kiev and Ukraine for the last 10 years. Needs of blood medicine at hospitals are satisfied only by 15-25% from World Health Organization standard. According to the Kyev Municipal Blood Center the need for donors exceeds the supply by five times.
The lack of blood threatens the lives of children and adults daily.When someone suffers from our beloved ones, of course, we immediately rush to help them. We combine our efforts and ... trouble retreats. The pain has been forgotten, and we glad to be close with our relatives in rough times.
But there are a lot of "strangers" around us! Do we know how many moms, bending over the sleeping child's pale face, pray for only one thing - to find the right blood donor?
Are you aware that You may be the most right and important person in someone's life? And not just spiritually but physically as well.
Program "We are one blood" was started in 2004 with purpose of helping children and adults that need blood transfusion. For this reason bank of donors, leading a healthy lifestyle, was set up for all who needs such help. HOPE Ukraine with the Association of blood service of Ukraine carried out its annual campaign of free blood donation at the Kyiv Municipal Blood Center on October 23rd 2010.
And it was great! 50 liters of blood was collected. 170 donors took part in it - mostly our brothers and sisters from Kiev church.
During the preparation to the event the announcement about it was shown 5 229 388 times on the Internet to 969 467 people, there were 2800 booklets passed out by the disciples from Kiev Church of Christ.
This annual project of HOPE Ukraine is entitled "We Are Related By Blood". And for us, disciples of Jesus, these words are very meaningful.
Of course blood donating is a serious stuff. But it also can be done in a fun way with balloons and 
smiles. It is great to celebrate that we can help other people, to celebrate that God gave those donating health, to celebrate that we are able to deal with our fears...
Most donors came because they were invited personally - disciples in Kiev were sharing the news of the opportunity to help with one another and with their friends from the out-side of the church.
We were happy to greet the donors who take part in our annual event for many years as well as those who stepped into the Blood Center for the first time. There were people who could not be donors for health issues but they were coming just to encourage the donors and make tea for them. The atmosphere was warm and friendly that day in the Center of Blood. The donors were registering to our Bank do Donors to keep helping giving their blood to other people. There are now more than 200 people in this list. And when the blood is needed - they call us to help to save the life.
The manager of the Blood Center couldn't stop smiling and saying over and over again that they look forward to this HOPE event during the whole year and this is exactly what the blood donating should look like - celebration, happy day for all, because we are coming to give the best we have!
The donors had an opportunity to take part in a chartable lottery to win the gifts handmade by the orphaned children that HOPE Ukraine helps. These were hearts made by orphans from ORphanage 12, drawings of the kids with cancer from the OHMADET Clinic (the main clinic for children in Ukraine) with THANK YOU written on it. Many children know that they would not survive without the donors, they see how desperate their parents are in search of donors and are so happy when they find one.
Some donors won the coupon to get a free stylish haircut in beauty salon, a ride on a quarto-cycle, ticket to a movie and other encouraging stuff.
There was the food provided for donors and it was great to spend some time together talking and encouraging one another to meet one another. Ukrainian company "BILLA" provided food-stuff for this.
Altogether so far HOPE Ukraine was able to literally save 1300 people's lives with the blood of our donors (it is not counting this year Day of Donor). Mostly these were children. We are happy to help them to maybe get another chance to hear the Gospel in their lives by giving them our blood and help them to keep living.
We hope that the love and joy that everyone felt that day will be transferred to the sick people who will get our blood. And our joyful spirit will help them as much as the blood itself.
Watch the slideshow about the event here!