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It’s easy to take life for granted in our fast-paced world, but when a loved one has a serious medical problem, nothing else matters. And in such situations, having a ready supply of blood can make all the difference between life and death.

Valencia Mieke Randa started Blood for Life as a way to connect people in need of blood with willing donors. She tells My Jakarta about her inspiration, working with Google to get the word out and the future of Blood for Life.

What is Blood for Life?

Blood for Life brings together people who are in need of blood with anyone who’s kind enough to donate. We help those people in need by spreading the word through a mailing list and social media. We guarantee all the messages we send are real and not hoaxes. Blood for Life always fact-checks the stories to guarantee they are authentic.

And we also do more than match people up; we also raise awareness about the importance of donating blood.

What inspired you to establish Blood for Life?

I was at the hospital with my mother, who was undergoing dialysis, in 2009. While waiting, we saw another patient hemorrhaging and urgently in need of blood. But it seemed that the doctor and the family weren’t able to get blood quickly enough. Fifteen minutes later, the patient died. She was a stranger to me, but I felt so much sadness witnessing that incident. I couldn’t help but imagine what if it had happened to someone I loved.

Then there was a time when a prank SMS was sent around. The SMS said there was a girl who urgently needed blood donors for her cancer surgery. But once people found out that it was a hoax, they started to ignore messages like that, even when they weren’t a hoax. I was really angry and upset at the pranksters, so my mother told me that I should do something about it, like serving as a bridge between donors and patients, instead of just being upset. She said that something big always starts from little things.

How did you start?

I started Blood for Life from my blog. I’ve been a blogger for awhile but I usually blogged about silly things. But I began to write about this issue and my intention to create a movement to help solve it. I received lots of positive responses from my subscribers and they were willing to help, so I set up a mailing list to make it easier to spread the word.

Is it true that Google Chrome featured Blood for Life in an advertisement for its Indonesia launch?

Yes, and we felt so honored that Google featured us. The ad was the story of a real-life boy with a very rare blood type, O negative, and who needed a blood donor. It was short but meaningful and the ad quickly spread across the Internet. Our friends who watched the video told us that they burst into tears. Within about two hours we had received numerous responses from potential donors and the boy was saved.

How do you work with Palang Merah Indonesia [the Indonesian Red Cross]?

We cooperate indirectly with PMI. Our role is to inspire people to act because the lack of blood in PMI’s blood bank is always one of our concerns.

Many people are now coming in to donate. They keep donating even after PMI’s headquarters has exceeded capacity. We are very happy to hear that.

What has been the most difficult thing about keeping Blood for Life running?

There was a time when I decided to work full-time and I shut down Blood for Life for about a year. Then my mom passed away earlier this year and I wasn’t there when she died. I was too late getting to the hospital. I was depressed until I received a message saying that someone needed a blood donor. At that moment, I was awakened and realized that this is my calling. I quit my job and dedicated my time to Blood for Life. The service was reactivated in April of this year.

Are you interested in turning Blood for Life into a foundation in the future?

Actually, no. I prefer to keep it a movement to inspire people to help others. I refuse to allow any donations to be transferred into my account. I just don’t want to deal with other people’s money because I’m just bad with money.

How do you spend your weekends?

I have committed my Saturdays and Sundays to my family. I have three children and two of them have special needs. I like to play with them, read to them and share my Blood for Life experiences with them. My youngest son once told me that he wants to be a pilot someday so he can take me across the world to help people. Isn’t that sweet?

Valencia Mieke Randa was talking to Aisyah Hamid.