Muslim Shia Organization Breaks World Record For Most Blood Donations In A Single Day

A Muslim non-profit, which spearheaded an international effort to encourage people to donate blood to end shortages, has broken the world record for donations in a single day. The campaign aimed not only to educate the public about the urgent need for blood but to also increase diversity in the supply. 

A total of 37,018 blood donations were made with 111,054 potential lives saved, as each donation is multiplied by three. The final numbers were confirmed by “Official World Records”.

Surpassing the previous world record, which was set in 2020 in India at 35,000, organizers had initially targeted  50,000 donations.

Who Is Hussain, a UK-based social justice nonprofit that is named after the grandson of Islam’s most revered prophet, has teams in more than 60 countries and helped coordinate the event. To mark the organization’s tenth anniversary, it decided to rally national blood organizations, civil society groups, local businesses, and grassroots communities to promote Global Blood Heroes Day.

“What we try to do with Who Is Hussain is we try to bring people together in various forms regardless of their backgrounds as far as race, religion, culture anything like that because at the end of the day we’re all human beings, right?” Ali Alvi, the Head of the Who Is Hussain North America team, said.

When brainstorming ideas for a global campaign that would make an impact, leaders of the organization asked themselves; What can we do all at once in one day that would benefit society?

More than 150 cities in over 20 countries across six continents participated on the day of the event on Aug. 27. Major cities across the United States such as Dallas, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles, New York City, and Dearborn hosted events at mosques, Carter BloodCare donation centers, and American Red Cross.

Over two thousand volunteers signed up and showed up on Global Blood Heroes Day all around the world. Volunteers helped organize the donations and conduct the day’s events. 

“We’re hoping to save Texan lives locally as part of this global campaign,” Malahat Kizilbash, Who is Hussain's Texas representative, said. “We’re moved by the saying ‘to save one life, is to save all of humanity.’ With just one hour of your time donating blood, you can save up to three adult lives, or up to seven infant lives.”

The blood crisis was further emphasized by James Black, a Public Relations Specialist for Carter BloodCare, a Texas-based blood donation organization and one of the largest blood centers in the United States. According to an American Red Cross study published in August, 62% of Americans are eligible to donate blood. However, out of those eligible candidates, only 3% actually donate blood. 

Black also revealed that the blood donated does not stay on their shelves for longer than two days. He described the blood crisis in Texas as “not critical but urgent”. 

“August is a really difficult time for blood donations, partly for two reasons,” Black said. “One, the high school students are just now getting back into school. So whenever they’re on break, that’s a large pool of our donors, it's the high school students… When they’re out the blood supply takes a big dip”

By hosting the blood drive, Who Is Hussain created a conversation about the massive need for blood around the world. People who had never previously donated before came and contributed. As a Muslim organization, they were especially motivated to encourage more people from within their faith group to donate.

“Though our appointment slots were almost full, I was amazed at the sheer number of people who were calling and walking in,” Azra Kazmi, a blood donor and volunteer at the MOMIN center based in Dallas, said. “Many were donating for the first time. People were happy to wait hours to donate, wanting to save lives in honor of Hussain ibn Ali. The world record attempt definitely added to the overall excitement! It was truly an uplifting experience."

According to Carter BloodCare, high school students make up almost 25% of their annual donor pool. Black also went on to explain how donating blood just isn’t a priority for most people.

“Also, you have people at the end of the summer that are wrapping up their vacations and they’re going out of town so donating blood isn’t top of mind for them. Those two things alone have a big impact on the community blood supply,” Black said. 

The pandemic helped to create the worst shortage in over a decade, according to the UK and US authorities, with the Red Cross in America announcing the first-ever national blood crisis. The Global Blood Heroes campaign saw large numbers of first-time donors take part; with 50% of donations in Canada and 25% in the UK coming from those giving blood for the very first time.

“It’s incredible to think that the selfless altruism of this man who lived over a thousand years ago, has inspired 37,000+ people to participate in the biggest international blood drive in history,” said the organization's Director, Muntazir Ali.

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