The FINANCIAL — Last week Bank Republic employees donated blood at Iashvili Children’s Hospital.
According to a bank official, Bank Republic is constantly implementing Corporate Social Responsibility activities to the benefit of the whole of society.
“By implementing these beneficial actions we are helping about 30 children who suffer from illness. Blood banks today have a shortage of different blood types. So we are trying to help needy children through our combined effort by donating blood for them,” Irakli Aslanishvili, Commercial Director of BR, said that they will continue this activity in the future as well.
“Bank Republic has been several times recognized as the Bank with the best Corporate Social Responsibility. We use to implement different social activities. This kind of activity should really be promoted. Everyone should share and receive information that there are people who urgently need blood and you can help them simply by donating blood. We should support society in this direction,” Aslanishvili said.
Bank Republic purchased furniture that was needed for the children at Iashvili Hospital.
“We have also donated some special furniture for the clinic. This clinic has no problem in the direction of technology so we just helped it add comfort and presented it with some additional equipment and furniture. We will consistently continue such activities and also take part in other actions in the future,” Aslanishvili said.
“This is not just a one day process; it will continue. We don’t force our employees to donate blood, it depends on their goodwill. Donated blood from every person goes to helping little children who need to recover from an illness so it’s a great initiative,” Aslanishvili said.
According to bank officials, for 4 years already the Citizens Commitment Week has been held annually by all subsidiaries of the Societe Generale Group, including Bank Republic. The aim of the Week is to implement socially beneficial actions to physically, morally and financially support needy communities.
“We believe that blood donation is a very important personal commitment of each healthy citizen of the country. Thousands of sick children and adults require a huge volume of blood donations daily. This year like last year, under Citizens Commitment Week, among other actions Bank Republic employees have decided to donate blood to 30 kids at Iashvili clinic, those suffering from Leukaemia and undergoing a very painful, long term blood treatment process,” bank officials note.
“There is a Citizen Commitment Week and so being a part of Societe Generale Group we actively take part in implementing such projects. We have a really wide spectrum of activities in Georgia in the direction of social responsibility. We will keep close relations with Iashvili clinic in different directions in the future. We are also financially supporting the clinic in different directions,” Aslanishvili said.
According to David Laliashvili, Director of the Blood Bank at Iashvili Hospital, about 200 blood donations happen at the hospital per month which is quite a small number.
“We are mostly oriented on children who need blood. Blood is a naturally occurring substance and is not artificially produced anywhere in the world. There don’t exist any biological liquids that can act as a substitute for blood. Therefore it depends on our goodwill to donate blood and save the lives of any children who need it. The parents of children who need blood often encounter problems acquiring blood. They often can’t often find anyone with a blood type that is useful for them,” Laliashvili said.
“If activities like this one that Bank Republic has done were held every week, the situation could become much better and our patients would have better chances. Our clinic tries its best to help patients by giving blood starting from family members and friends. We also have negotiations with different organizations and it’s a big act of kindness for a person to donate blood to children. It would be good if many other organizations would also help us like Bank Republic did and donate blood to aid those needy children,” Laliashvili said.
Most people are able to give blood if they are: fit, healthy and not suffering from a cold, flu or other illness at the time of donation or in the prior 7 days, aged between 16-70 years (in QLD and WA 16-17 year olds require parental consent), weigh more than 45kg (16-17 year olds need to weigh more than 50kg), drink up in the 24 hours before donation, especially in warm weather, and have at least 3 to 4 good-sized glasses of water/juice in the 3 hours before donating (a plasma and platelet donor needs to drink at least 6 to 8 glasses), and have eaten something in the 3 hours before donating.
According to the Australian Red Cross Blood Service, 1 in 3 people need blood and only 1 in 30 people currently give blood. So if you, or one of your loved ones, have ever needed blood, you already know how important it is.
Bank Republic has taken an important step in encouraging its employees to donate blood, especially to such a needy segment of the population. Their actions should act as an example to other Georgians to demonstrate their goodwill in such a generous and rewarding way in the future.
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