This Foreigner Became Influential In a Very Bloody Way

Source: JobTube, Arianna J. Freya W., Josh B

On October 17th, Chinese media covered news about Abdulla Gharbal, a Bahraini student who has donated blood five times in seven years in Wenzhou, Zhejiang. He donated a total amount of around 1900 ml, which touched many hearts.

Why It Means So Much

When he was 18 years old, Abdulla Gharbal took part in blood donation in Bahrain, to give his special "adult gift". The reason why he made such decision was because two of his cousins had suffered from sickle cell anemia, which was a disease where patients need blood transfusion to maintain their lives. This helped him to realize how important donating blood was. After coming to China, from his sophomore year in Wenzhou Medical University, Abdulla became one of Wenzhou's unpaid blood donation volunteers.

An Influential Donator

Abdullas moments

As to make it memorable, each year Abdulla donated blood before Chinese National Day. This year, before October 1st, Abdulla donated 400ml of blood in the 2nd Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, and it was his 5th time doing so. After donating, Abdulla would post the photos under his WeChat Moments to encourage more people to join him. He also served as a volunteer consultant of blood donation on WeChat. Inspired by him, many other foreign students from Bahrain, Yemen and Ghana joined in and donated blood every year.

Impressive But Not Occasional

Abdullas deed was impressive but not occasional. In fact, each year there are multiple news articles about foreigners donating blood on Chinese media. As early as July 15th, 2017, foreign businessmen in Yiwu, Zhejiang, set the day as "Yiwu World Merchant Blood Donation Day" on which they would donate blood, each year. On the day, more than 200 foreign businessmen gathered and donated their blood, with the amount totaling 202,700 ml. What's worth mentioning, is that 37 of them also joined the Chinese Bone Marrow Bank.

On April 20th, news of this type was covered by the mainstream media, where more than 100 foreigners went to Shanghai Children's Hospital to donate blood in the name of "Lighting Up Hope with Love".

I will continue!

"It means a lot to me that my donation can help others. No matter where I am in the future, I will continue to do it." Abdulla said.

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