The Kantha Bopha Children’s Hospital called on students and adults in good health to donate blood at its blood donation unit to support and save children in Cambodia.

Meas Sarith, the hospital’s head of administration, told The Post on November 7 that target donors are those without chronic illnesses.

“We regularly appeal for blood donations. We call on patients’ families and other donors such as healthy students to volunteer to donate blood,” he said.

Sarith said blood is important for saving people’s lives who had suffered a serious accident or disease that requires a blood transfusion.

Blood donated by the public is stored in medical refrigerators and is immediately ready to be used to save victims and poor families if they cannot find a donor.

If a woman loses a lot of blood during labour or if there is a technical problem, they will need a blood transfusion. Hospitals need to have blood in reserve as there may not be enough time to wait for blood from elsewhere, he said.

“This is a necessity, that’s why the Kantha Bopha Children’s Hospital has a place to receive blood and a storage facility, which we call the Kantha Bopha Blood Bank,” he said.

Sarith said people who volunteer to donate blood can do so at its branches in the capital and Siem Reap province during working hours from Monday to Friday.

“Please join hands to donate blood to save children’s lives,” the hospital said in a written appeal.

Ravi Sophearoth, an NGO worker in Phnom Penh who had donated blood last year, said she now does so every four months. She said she donates blood as a way to save people, especially children.