Hundreds of Cambodian youth join Valentine's Day blood drive

PHNOM PENH, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Cambodia's National Blood Transfusion Center (NBTC) collected about 600 units of blood on Sunday during its third annual Valentine's Day blood drive.

"The campaign gives an opportunity to youth to share their love by donating blood to save victims who are in need of blood," NBTC director Hok Kimcheng said during the blood drive here.

He said the NBTC received some 54,793 units of blood in the whole year of 2015, about 67 percent of the blood donors were young adults aged between 18 and 30 years old.

Health Minister Mam Bunheng said blood transfusion did not harm donors' health; instead, their blood would save lives.

"Donating blood is a good deed because we all know that blood is essential for patients who are much in need of blood," he said, encouraging youth to continue their humanitarian activities.

Valentine's Day blood drive is one of the events Cambodia has created to encourage young people to join humanitarian activities and to contribute to preventing sexual misconduct among young adults on the day.

Valentine's Day is becoming popular among young people in this Southeast Asian country and some students skip classes to go on a date.

Early this week, the ministries of culture and education had called on parents, teachers and authorities to take possible actions to curb teenagers from using the day for salacious festivities.