The black and grey tent is large and airy with lots of pedestal fans and reclining seats. It is bustling with activity. Volunteers scurry around the seats, coordinating with medical personnel and guiding people standing in queues, helping those who have turned up to give blood.

The Muharram blood donation drive is a common event here at Numaish in Karachi, which falls on the routes of the 9th and 10th of Muharram processions.

There are many different tents at the site, representing separate blood bank camps. The biggest are those set up by the Husaini Blood Bank and the Imamia Blood Transfusion and Medical Services.

The donors, most of them Shia devotees, are all regular donors who have been donating blood without fail in the month of Muharram, every year.

The ultimate sacrifice of Imam Hussain, solemnly commemorated every year through majlis gatherings and mourning processions in Muharram, has also inspired a community gesture of donating blood around this time

For over 40 years now, the Husaini Blood Bank has been setting up blood donation camps, especially around Ashura. The biggest camp among these, each year, is the one I am visiting today.

“The donation drive associated with Muharram begins on Muharram 1, the start of the Islamic year,” says Asad Ali, who heads the Husaini Blood Bank. “It goes on till 8th Rabi-ul-Awwal, gaining more intensity in the number of donors around the 8th, 9th and 10th of Muharram.

“We take care that no donor is repeated because, technically, you can donate a pint of blood only once in 90 days. Therefore, we are very particular about keeping records. That said, many of our donors are our regular donors and they know of this limitation.”

In the past 30 to 40 years, Ali has seen young men and women who used to accompany their parents as kids, now come with their own grown-up kids.

The Husaini Blood Bank’s collection from its special Muharram camps is also supplied to other organisations such as the Afzaal Memorial Thalassemia Foundation, the SHED Foundation, the Kutiyana Memon Hospital, and the Burhani Blood Bank, etc.

“All these organisations are equipped with screening facilities,” says Ali. “We also screen the pints that we are left with and it all doesn’t end there. If there is a problem with any of the blood, it gets reported back to us and we inform the donor about it. This way, we have alerted several people who were hepatitis positive or wreactive and also followed up with them by offering them treatment, for which we have a separate clinic. We started this facility around two years ago.”

After Ashura, the Husaini Blood Bank wraps up its traditional donation camp at Numaish. But they establish camps at all other special days during the month, and wherever there is a religious gathering or majlis. And it goes on until the first week of Rabi-ul-Awwal, when people donate blood in the name of the Prophet (PBUH), whose birthday marks the traditional end of the period of Shia mourning.

Ali Ahmar, who is also associated with the Shia political organisation the Majlis Wahdat-i-Muslimeen, is 42 today. He has been donating blood for the last 25 years.

“It is something that I have seen my elders do while I was growing up,” says Ahmar. “When I was old enough, I also followed in their footsteps. The basic idea is to do something positive to help humanity.”

The Majlis Wahdat-i-Muslimeen blood donation camps come under the Imamia Blood Transfusion and Medical Services. They have a huge presence around the Ashura procession routes and otherwise too.

“Because of donating at Ashura, I’m not afraid to give blood,” he says. “The fervour born out of the Muharram drive has helped me step up and donate my blood whenever it is needed, and not just during Muharram.

“Sometimes I get a call from a friend whose parents or any other relative is undergoing heart bypass surgery, sometimes someone may be suffering from Hepatitis B and needs it, sometimes there is a spread of dengue or any other major epidemic or pandemic. I only donate once in three months and, if it is too soon for me to donate again, I arrange for someone else to donate blood,” adds Ahmar.

Syed Faheem Raza, who also donates blood the year round, first started with donating at an Ashura camp.

“Today, I see so many children enthusiastically offering to donate their blood, only to be asked to wait until they are of age,” he says.

“Donating your blood in memory of Imam Hussain razi Allah taala anhu is such a great gesture. I wanted to donate blood too, just like my elders did, but I wasn’t permitted to until I turned 18. But after that, a weight issue prevented me from donating blood.”

Raza was told that, at 45kg, he was underweight and considered weak. “After I became 50kg, I started donating regularly and my health and weight really improved,” he says.

“It happens with all donors,” he adds with a smile. “It’s a kind of a side effect of the good deed you are doing. But, on a serious note, your blood circulation improves and since your blood is being screened, you also get to know of any illness in time to get early treatment for it.”

Mohammad Ismail, who belongs to the Baltistan Medical Trust, says that he is also a regular donor, a habit he began 10 years ago around Ashura time.

“Now my organisation has a blood bank account with the Husaini Blood Bank, giving the members certain benefits,” he informs Eos. “A blood bank account is just like your regular bank savings account, extending benefits to you. Like you get your bank statement, you get your blood screening report from your blood bank account. Facilities are extended to you for treatment too in case your blood report shows a problem.”

Women also are not too far behind when it comes to donating blood at this time. “There is a donation camp devoted to women alone that runs from 2pm to 5pm at Mehfil-i-Murtaza at PECHS Block 3 on the 9th of Muharram,” says Mohammad Attaur Rab Siddiqui, manager of the Camp Department at the Husaini Blood Bank Haematology and Oncology Trust.

“I started donating blood some five years ago when I witnessed this very positive practice after marrying into an ahl-i-tasheeh family,” says Sana Ather, a regular donor. “I thought it to be such a great service to mankind that I volunteered to donate blood on Ashura day, five years ago.”

The first time may not have been easy for her as she thought she might faint. “Today, I think my silly fears were quite funny. I have no issues donating blood now.

“Recently, my mother-in-law, who is also my good friend, needed blood and I gladly donated because my husband was suffering from low blood pressure at the time,” she says with a proud smile.

The writer is a member of staff.

She tweets @HasanShazia

Published in Dawn, EOS, August 7th, 2022