Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) staff, Daniel Tolentino, receives his Certificate of Appreciation as a Ruby Awardee for donating blood over the years to the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI). Joining him during the simple awarding ceremony on October 1 are (from left to right) NKTI Blood Recruitment Team Coordinator Shiela Villamor; DSWD Medical Officer, Dr. Madeline Alcusin; and DSWD Resident Nurse Nora Eustaquio.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development issued a congratulatory announcement commending three of its employees who were recently conferred the 14^th Kabalikat Awards by the National Kidney Transplant institute (NKTI) for consistently donating blood which could help save lives of kidney transplant patients. The congratulatory announcement was issued by the Department’s Human Resource Management and Development Service and sent to all bureaus, services, offices in the Central Office and all Field Offices.

Daniel Tolentino was accorded with the Ruby Award, while Marco D. Panganiban and Christopher Saavedra were awarded with the Pearl Award for donating blood over the years. The three awardees are Information Technology Officers   of the National Household Targeting Office based at the Central Office.

The Kabalikat Awards is an annual awarding ceremony of the NKTI to regular blood donors, both individuals and groups, for their commitment and unwavering support to the voluntary blood donation program of the institute for the attainment of the vision of Republic Act 7719 known as the “National Blood Act of 1994”.

Ruby Award is given to those who donated at least 37 units of blood for more than 20 consecutive years, while Pearl Award is given to those who donated at least 9 units of blood for more than three consecutive years.

Likewise, the NKTI Blood Recruitment Team and Apheresis Section recognized the DSWD Central Office for being its partner through the conduct of continuous mobile blood donation activities in its premises. ###