Schools visits, signing sessions and recruiting people to donate blood. That, in a nutshell, was the extent of DHL Western Province’s off-field activities during their whistle-stop visit to Windhoek this past weekend.
It was heartening to see the support for Western Province in Windhoek, both on and off the field, and it was plain to see for all how happy the home team’s supporters were after Namibia’s narrow 30-28 win over WP on Saturday – showing just how much the win meant to them.
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However, the young DHL WP outfit left its mark off the field in other ways too – a few schools visits and a signing session later, but also after playing a huge role in helping to recruit potential blood donors at Wernhill Park and Maerua Mall.
We are not sure if the likes of Jan Uys, Jean Kleyn, Pat Howard, Rayn Smid and Devon Williams used intimidatory tactics – or not – but they helped collect nearly 140 units of blood as part of Namibia’s World Blood Donor Day celebrations.
According to the www.bts.com.na website, there are only 12,000 active blood donors in Namibia – 0.6% of the population, meaning that creating awareness is as important as collecting blood.
Marianne Wessels, of Blood Transfusion Service of Namibia, told www.wprugby.com: “Our target for the past weekend was 80 donations and we were able to collect 138 units!
“We are super-pleased with these results and we would like you, as a team, to know that you played no small part in our success.
“A huge thank you to Western Province Rugby for your willingness to take part in our World Blood Donor Day celebrations!”
