Village women give blood to earn a living

• Source: Global Times
• [13:29 November 13 2009]
• Comments

The "Blood Boat" took the willagers to the county.

By Song Shengxia

Many village women in a remote region of Hubei Province have found a way to get quick cash: They climb aboard the "Blood Boat."

The "blood boat" sails to the blood bank in Yunxian county, where more than 200 villagers, mostly women from far-flung mountainous areas, sell their blood for 160 yuan ($23). 

In exchange, 600cc of their blood is drawn, the maximum blood donation that can be collected from one person at one time under Chinese health regulations. The plasma is frozen for hospital transfusions and the blood protein is pumped back into the donors.

The donors receive an additional 8-yuan ($1.2) to cover their boat fare, the China Youth Daily reported.   

Liu Kailian, 46, says she started taking the "blood boat" to the blood clinic in 2004. To catch the boat, which normally sets off at 6 am, she has to get up at 4 am and walk one or two hours over mountain roads to reach the dock.

Before 2004, she received 79 yuan ($12) for each blood donation, an amount equal to one-quarter of her income from farming. The cash incentive was raised to 160 yuan ($23) in 2009.  

The villagers and the head of the blood bank particularly dislike the word "selling".

"They are not selling, but donating blood," Li Guangcheng, head of the blood station told the Global Times, saying the 160 yuan is a subsidy for donors to buy nutritional food.  

The blood bank operates in accordance with the nation's health regulations issued in March 2008, according to Li. 

"No one will be allowed to donate blood again within 14 days at our station," Li said. 

"Blood plasma levels will be made up within 40 hours after donors give their blood and their health won't be affected with a 14-day interval," he added.     

So far the blood station has 6,387 regular blood plasma givers. Over more than a decade, it has received nearly 20,000 blood plasma donors.