March 15, 2023
“Plasma Your Life, Donate Plasma”
The goal of the AIP@school project “Plasma Your Life, Donate Plasma” is to convey Social issues, integration, solidarity and inclusion, with special and specific reference to voluntary, periodic, responsible, anonymous and unpaid plasma and blood donation within schools, particularly in secondary schools (high school, ITS, IFTS and FP ). This initiative seeks to raise awareness on the topic of Primary Immunodeficiencies, Rare Diseases and plasma and blood donation, through an innovative communication format such as video stories, graphic elaborations, and expert testimonies.
The period of the pandemic emergency prompted the need for distance learning but also made adolescents rediscover “illness”, with all the physical and psychological impacts it entails, as well as the sense of solidarity.
There are teenagers who live with a disease on a daily basis, who go to school and who need plasma-derived products as a life-saving therapy.
The project, urged by some of our members, was created with the aim of promoting pathways for school inclusion of patients with Primary Immunodeficiency. It also seeks to address the social issues of plasma and blood donation as well as issues related to rare diseases through innovative content and modalities and by making people discover the medical role and teamwork.
The choice was made, therefore, to use a tool that children know and use every day to relate to each other: multimedia. Thus, an interactive platform was developed in which children, through role-playing, will be asked to reflect on issues such as inclusion, diversity, and solidarity as well as to strengthen the ability to collaborate and work as a team while valuing individuality. Five characters have been created and developed with different characteristics, five schoolmates with ages between 17 and 20 who are the protagonists and guides of the game and reflections.
The characters have been given a face, thanks to the skilful hand of an illustrator, and a voice characterised by professional actors. Sound settings and situations have been created that will allow children to identify and empathise with the characters. Five boys, attending the same school but in different companies, find themselves on a journey together, guided by a mysterious voice without much information. During the journey, places will be visited, relationships will be witnessed, and activities will be offered to encourage reflection and discussion within the classroom. To allow the topic of blood donation and rare diseases to be addressed, one of the characters will have Primary Immunodeficiency.
If you are a school leader, a teacher, an enterprising young person, or the parent of a high school student and want to communicate to others about the importance of plasma and blood donation, we invite you to join us and visit our website: https://www.plasmavita.it
