ISS holds blood drive |10 June 2023
Ms Vallantine and Mr Sood were among the staff who donated blood (Photo: Louis Toussaint)
• “You are not born for yourself but for the World”
The International School Seychelles held its sixth blood drive at the school on Wednesday, attracting over twenty blood donors.
The exercise is usually held every four months. However, the school’s last blood drive was two years ago.
According to the school’s principal and head of secondary, Elodie Vallantine, this is an important exercise which contributed towards Seychelles’ community.
“We have seen an increase in the number of donors,” she stated.
An estimated 26 people were expected to take part in the blood drive, including some students, parents and staff.
“We feel very passionate about it because we know the situation in Seychelles and we want to do our best to help the community,” she said.
Furthermore, the core principle motto of the school itself: “You are not born for yourself but for the world” is what ISS stands for and the blood drive is a great representation of that.
In terms of what spurred on the blood drive, Ms Vallantine explained that there were two primary reasons. The first one was a personal reason, noting that her family has a history of blood donors and has been doing it for decades.
“My father was a very big blood donor and I have been inspired by him to give back,” she stated.
Another reason was that three years ago an expert came to the school to hold a sensitisation session with the staff on blood donation.
Her message for potential blood donors where to “just do it once and when you do it once you will not be afraid anymore and there will always be somebody to support you the first time”.
She stated it was a team effort and everyone was there to help each other out.
Elizabeth Banda, one of the nurses at the blood drive, explained that the hospital has been in close partnership with the school for the last two years.
“This is very important to the community because it is helping us save a lot of lives,” she explained. “Their contribution to the society by donating blood is therefore very important.”
Math teacher, Spandan Sood, is one of the regular blood donors and among a few having the B- blood type. “There are a lot of people who need blood transfusion nowadays and being a small island nation we do not have a large unit of blood available,” he said.
Mr Sood stated there were several benefits of donating blood, as it replenishes blood cells inside the body. “As long as you are healthy and you eat well, there is no problem in donating blood and you just make sure that your white cells are good.”
The blood drive is in collaboration with other partners such as H Savy Insurance, Absa Bank Seychelles Limited and Red Cross Society of Seychelles.
Sunny Esparon