By Dylan Oktober

Our staff understands the importance of giving. A unit of blood can give the gift of life for up to 3 people; therefore, it is only fitting to give back where we can and support our community.

This year, we have, therefore, set out to give back by participating in the Reach for A Dream’s Slipper Day and hosted our second edition of our Mandela Day internal challenge.

The Reach for a Dream Foundation raises funds for children fighting life-threatening illnesses. Our staff hopped on the fun activation and purchased stickers in support of Slipper Day hosted on Friday, 6 May. We sported our funky slippers on the day, knowing that it was all for a good cause.

Our Mandela Day internal challenge takes place in July and aims to inspire staff to donate much-needed items to worthy causes. Each year staff has the opportunity to nominate a cause that’s close to their heart. Staff members are then grouped into teams, each consisting of a few departments, and compete to see who could bring the most donations and be crowned the champions for 2022. he two causes supported this year were the Pioneer School for the Visually Impaired in Worcester and Oudtshoorn Dogs In Need (ODIN).

The Pioneer School caters to 2 learner groups, namely visually impaired and visually impaired learners with multiple barriers to learning. This includes deafblind learners. They strive toward the holistic development of independent and integrated learners. They provide for their special educational needs by focusing on visual and learning impairments.

ODIN is a pro-life organisation that focuses on outreach programmes for animals in need in the Karoo and Eden districts. They believe every animal deserves a second chance at happiness. The work they do includes, but is not limited to; vaccinations, sterilisations, rescuing, medicating, educating and re-homing.

In total, we collected 574 items from all the teams. The Pioneer School received 364 items, and ODIN received 210 items. For the second year in a row, Team 3 won. This team consists of our Worcester branch, Khayelitsha Blood Bank, Red Cross Blood Bank, Technical labs, Quality Management, and Finance department.