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AIMA promoting diversity in Australia’s blood supply
by AMUST
AMUST Media
The Australian Islamic Medical Association (AIMA) in collaboration with the Australian Red Cross Lifeblood, organised the 4th annual blood donation drive across mosques on Friday 24 February 2023.
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Australian mosques located across six states and territories, including regional centres and capital cities commenced the blood drive on 1 December 2022 and will continue until 15 March 2023.
The need for blood donations is urgent, and Lifeblood requires 100,000 new donors this year to meet the growing demand for blood products. It is essential to have ethnic diversity in blood donors to match the multicultural backgrounds of Australian patients.
To address this demand, the Australian Islamic Medical Association (AIMA) organised the national blood donation drive, where congregants from various multicultural and ethnic communities were encouraged to donate blood at mosques around Australia.
The drive aimed to educate people about the importance of donating blood and to en- courage them to become regular donors.
Omar Shareef, AIMA Queensland Vice-President, coordinated the blood drive with the Islamic Medical Association of Queensland (IMAQ) across the 10 participating mosques in Queensland.
He spoke to ABC Radio Brisbane about the drive’s significance.
“The congregations at the mosques have several different multicultural and ethnic communities, and some people from these different backgrounds don’t know what happens to the donations, and Lifeblood explains their purpose,” he said.
“We are also practising our gratitude behaviours of giving back to the community, which is emphasised significantly in Islamic teaching.”
“Giving blood can be a form of Zakat or charity, a form of giving back from what Allah has given.” Kamal Hamed, Shaykh at Rahma Mosque in Sydney said to SBS Radio. “In the past this was almost taboo, No one understood how to react by giving blood. But now I believe the majority of the Muslims have this understanding that it is permissible.”
Dr Muhammad Kahloon, President of AIMA, emphasised the importance of co-
