A total of 1,239 teachers and students in nine senior high schools, universities and technical secondary schools in Hechi, Guangxi, voluntarily donated over 290,000 milliliters of blood in November and December last year.

The nine schools were Yizhou Valley Senior High School, Dahua No 2 Senior High School, Nandan High School, Hechi No 3 Senior High School, Hechi Ethnic Minority High School, Tian'e High School, Hechi University, Guangxi Modern Polytechnic College and Hechi Hygiene School.

Ding Lei, headmaster of Yizhou Valley Senior High School, not only took the lead in volunteering to donate, but also acted as a publicity agent to answer questions and offer help. He said that volunteer blood donation showed humanity, philanthropy and a community spirit. "Schools should be places that both teach students knowledge and guide them how to be responsible and loving," he said.

According to a leader from Hechi Blood Center, it was the first large-scale organization of volunteer blood donation among schools above senior high. The drive proved to be a great success in increasing the amount of youth blood donors in the city and?helping relieve blood shortages.

In recent years there has been a growing need for more blood donations for clinical use. The Hechi Blood Center has launched publicity campaigns to raise awareness of the shortages and encourage blood donation.

In 2015, 24,958 local residents donated more than 8.54 million milliliters of blood voluntarily and 616 people donated machine-collected platelets able to satisfy 1,069 therapeutic doses. The total blood volume and blood platelets collected increased 2.2 percent and 23.6 percent respectively compared with 2014.

Healthy young students take a picture to mark their blood donations with certificates in hands. [Photo by Qin Chufang / hcwang.cn]

A girl donates blood in a blood collection vehicle. [Photo by Qin Chufang / hcwang.cn]

Edited by Owen Fishwick