NUST Community Services Club (NCSC) holds blood camp in collaboration with AFIT

Since its inception, the NUST Community Services Club (NCSC) has not only been committed to spreading awareness about the challenges faced by people around us, but it also aims to inculcate a sense of responsibility among students by having them work for the community through multiple projects and events throughout the year. Many of their flagship projects are aimed at the most vulnerable segments of society, like Al-Qalam which aims to make education accessible to all, and FemPower that aims to empower and equip underprivileged women of our society with various skills to earn for themselves.

One such event, held biannually in the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) H-12, is their signature “Blood Donation Drive.” Each semester, NCSC partners with reputable organizations who come on campus to collect blood from donors. The donors comprise of the students, teachers and faculty of NUST. Due to the nationwide lockdowns over the past year and a half, the on-campus Blood Donation Drive had been on hiatus. However, this year, NCSC held another in-person Blood Donation Drive in an unprecedented collaboration with the Armed Forces Institute of Transfusion (AFIT). The blood collected would be used to treat various life-threatening ailments such as Thalassemia.

The Blood Donation Drive went on for the entirety of two days, namely the 10th and 11th of November, where we witnessed a massive turnout. People came out in scores to donate for the noble cause, as the organizing body of the Club kept a tally of how many students came to give blood from each department of NUST.

The Blood Donation Drive proved to be a huge success, with 330 pints collected over the course of the two days. NCSC, owing true to its name and mission statement, aimed to make students more aware of the various blood-borne diseases that are widespread among many unfortunate people across the country. The Blood Donation Drive was a small part of the Club’s mission to give back to the society at large, which they succeeded in doing so here.

Over the course of two days, a total of 470 registrations were recorded, out of which there were 325 males and 145 females. Although many were declared ineligible to donate blood, a sizeable number of donations were still collected – a total of 330 pints of blood.