Blood Donation - You Can Save

Last month, a one week blood donation was held in Tunku Abdul Rahman College (TARC) on the 27th February until 2nd March. It was organized by the First Aid Unit (FAU). The blood donation campaign is organized every semester as a donor may donate their blood every 3 months.

TARC Blood Donation Campaign 2012

Why should you donate blood? Do you know that blood donation not only benefit others, but also benefit yourself? Do you know that one blood bag of  350 ml-450 ml can save three lives and while just three teaspoons of blood can save the life of a premature baby? By just donating your blood, you may reduce the chance of getting heart diseases and cancer. It can also enhance the production of new red blood cells. In addition, blood donation can burn calories which can help in diet!

It was my second time of donating blood. The first time was during last year's Wesak Day. Therefore, I have taken a light breakfast and had 7 hours of sleep before I went to there. This is the preparation you should do if you are going to donate blood. You must be in a fit condition to donate blood.

To be a qualified donor, you must full fill the conditions below:

a. You must age in between 18-60 years old.
b. You must not weigh less than 45kg.
c. Your haemoglobin content level must be at least 12.5 gm%.
d. The last blood donation you have taken was at least 90 days ago.
e. You are healthy and had not diagnosed from malaria, typhoid or any other transmissible disease from the past.
f. You have taken your meal and had at least 6 hours ot sleep.

If you have the conditions as below, you are not allowed to participate in the blood donation:

a. Caught a cold/fever in the past one week.
b. Taken antibiotics or under any other medication.
c. Had major surgery in the past 6 months.
d. Had vaccination in the past 24 hours.
e. Had alcohol in the past 24 hours.
f. Have a history of drug addiction.
g. Have different sexual partners.
h. Tested positive for antibodies to HIV.
i. Had tattoo or piercing in the past 6 months.
j. Females that are pregnant or having monthly menstruation.

When you arrived at the blood centre, you will be asked some general questions regarding your health status and donation history. You will also be asked to weigh first. Later on,  you are required to fill a questionnaire with questions similar like above. The whole blood donation process is only about 10-15 minutes.

Helper asking questions

Filling the questionnaires

After that, the first aiders will perform a quick check on you, to check the body temperature, blood pressure, pulse and haemoglobin content in the blood. First, your finger will be pricked to collect a little blood for a blood check. If your haemoglobin content is tested to be negative, then you are not allowed to donate blood. If you pass this stage, you may proceed to the next stage, which is to check your blood pressure. These few stages are like a serial progress, you must pass the first one in order to continue the second one.

Ready to prick the finger

The equipments for blood check

Blood Check

After you have done the quick check, you will be registered as a qualified donor. If you are a first time donor, a small red book will be given to you. The function of this small red book is to do record for every time you donate blood.

Registration for the donor's red book

Next, you will be asked to bring a plastic bag that contains a pack of sterile equipments and blood bag to the place where the blood donation takes place. Firstly, you will be asked to lie down on a resting chair. Then, the nurse will inject the tranquilizer before she starts to poke in the needle to your arm. After that, just sit relax and wait for the blood bag to be filled. It takes around 5-10 minutes to fully fill up the blood bag.

The plastic bag with sterile equipments inside

Preparing for the donation

 

Filling up the blood bag

 

Other donors

After the blood bag is filled, the needle will be taken out and you will be asked to press on the injection spot with a cotton wool to stop the bleeding. Lastly, the nurse will put a band-aid on it. After the donation, you are not allowed to move around immediately, you have to lay down and rest for a while to ensure you are not feeling dizzy or unwell. You will be informed when you may leave.

Put pressure on the wool to stop the bleeding

After the donation is done, there is a refreshing area where you may take some snacks and drink such as Milo and bread to refresh yourself. You are also encouraged to drink more water. There are a few things which you are not encouraged to do after the donation such as taking alcohol drink and lifting heavy items or exercise in the next 24 hours.

The given refreshments

The refreshing area

Your blood bag now will be separated according to the blood groups and will be processed into components within eight hours. It will be taken to the laboratory for testing. Once it is found safe, it will be kept in a special storage. Your blood now is ready to save lives.

 The blood will be sent to Pusat Darah Negara

It was my first time donating blood in TARC. I like their service and the management very much. It is very systematic and also quite strict. If you are not donating or you are not qualified to donate, there is a waiting place outside the hall. You are required to wait outside and not allowed to go into the hall and interrupt the blood donation. Hence, it was quiet in the hall. This is unlike the first donation I had and other blood donation I witnessed because normally, they allow every one to go in and it is very noisy. The best thing about TARC blood donation campaign is there is a lucky draw, and you might get some prizes home!

The gifts 

Be nice to me... I gave blood Today

Lastly, LIVE HEALTHILY and be a responsible donor! 

BY: YEONG YEE SIONG

Save a life. Adopt a pet.

Pets are house animals that you would nurture, love and protect. It sounds a bit like having a child but pets are something like a child. After you trained, play with them and love them, they would do the same to you. They would protect you from any harm, they would come to you when your sad, they would lick you if you were hurt, and sometimes they even know how to cheer you up.

Most people would like to have dogs and cats as their pets but pets can be almost any type of animal for example, parrots, tortoise, birds, rabbits, chickens, fishes and even hamsters. Those are most of the usual ones. The unusual are snakes, spiders, frogs, iguanas, monkey and so on. According to some people, since they could not have a child they would have a pet or they want to know what it is like to have a child so they start of with a pet first.

A child and a puppy...both similar but different

Who says cats and dogs can't live together?

There are even clothes for dogs

All cuddled up

An exotic pet. A sloth.

The snake loves me!!

These pets have owners who love and care about them. They are taken care of and treated as part of the family but what happens to the other pets? What happens to the pets that are abandoned or abused or stuck in a dog pound waiting for a new nice owner to arrive and save them. Pets who are longing for love are care and attention. What happens to them? Don't they deserve a second chance at life? Don't deserve to be saved? This video would help you understand what I am talking about.

 

So go now! Save a life and adopt a pet!

Traditional Kraft Tangan - Shall Not Be Forgotten

How did you spend your April Fool? Did you just stay in your house just to avoid being fooled by other people? If so, you are really FOOLED. You might just missed some really fantastic event out there! As I know, Golden Screen Cinemas (GSC) gave away 25K of movie tickets on April Fool. In addition, Snowflake also gave out some really good deal.

Promosi Kraftangan Malaysia @ Great Easter Mall

Taken from above

On that day, I heard that there was an event going on in Great Eastern Mall. So what was this event? It was Promosi Kraf Tangan Malaysia which was organized by Kementerian Penerangan Komunikasi & Kebudayaan in conjunction with Hari Kebangsaan Kebudayaan 2012. This event were held in the Klang Valley. Their objective is to encourage the Malaysians to wear and use more of the Malaysia kraft tangan so that the great history about it will not be forgotten.


How much do you know about kraft tangan? I remembered I had seen kraft tangan came out in the essay part during the examination. However, I always choose other topic to write instead of kraft tangan Malaysia because I knew too little about it.

Congkak - Have you play this before?

In general, kraft tangan are the items such as ornaments that are from person hand-made or by using simple tools only. It is always made in a small scale only and not consider as kraft tangan if it is produced in a large scale. Traditional kraft tangan is very popular in Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu. Examples of kraft tangan are batik, mengkuang, kain songket and others.

Colorful Batik

Kraft tangan is one of the interesting culture in Malaysia. It can be presented as gifts or souvenirs to other people.

In this event which lasted for 11 days (22/3 - 1/4/2012), there were plenty of booths that came from the states all over the Semenanjung Malaysia such as Kelantan, Kedah, Melaka, Terengganu and etc.They sell different kinds of kraft tangan such as congkak, pedang, batik, rattan-made objects and many more. In addition, some performances were held also in order to attract the public's attention.

A quartet performance of Chinese Instruments 

First - Gu zheng, Second - Di zi, Third - Er hu, Fourth - Gu

Kids posing in front of the performers

Kompang and some drums

From Johor. I wish I could own one of them

Some ceramics handicrafts from Selangor

Beautiful ceramics

Wood crafts from Selangor

Magnificent Wood Crafts

From Melaka 

Tenmoku from Selangor (bracelets)

Teapots

Only one set for each

Traditional handicrafts from Kelantan

It really requires a lot of patience in creating them

Totally had no idea what is this

Rattan made items from Kelantan

It really did broaden up my view about handicrafts. As a teenager from the 90-s, in addition living in KL, it really is a rare chance for me to see so much of handicrafts at once. Some of the sellers were really friendly. They allowed me to take picture and also removed all the unnecessary items just to let me take a better photo of the handicrafts. I really felt grateful and it was a very good day in Great Eastern Mall. 

BY: YEONG  YEE SIONG

Special Recipe for Whitening

There is a special recipe of whitening from my friend, which is come from great great grandmother generation. Great great grandmother always said, last time in their generation, there is no skin care and make up for them. Maybe there are, but expensive. So for the girls in that generation, they have a special beverage which is green lemon juice that will help to whitening. For the whitening skin care that people use nowadays is just whitening for your face but drinks can help to whitening the whole body.

1. prepare a green lemon

2。soaked in water for 3 minutes.

3. press the lemon before you cut it.

4.cut into half, one for yourself and half for another one.

5. squeezed the lemon

6. we need this quantity only.

7. add pure water into the glass and the ratio is 1:10

this is my friend that introduce us to have green lemon juice.

she is a blogger.

can view her blog in 

HERE

I think it is interesting to try because it is just a drink and the ingredient is green lemon that is easy to get it from the market. The main point is, it is much cheaper than the whitening products.

This is the special recipe from a friend of mine.

*Attention!! People who always or easy to have gastric,  my advice better not to try this recipe.

BY: CHIN JIE YING