New addition to SANBS has many plans

SANBS Limpopo’s newly appointed donor relations practitioner Ipeleng Thetela (33) says as soon as she is familiar with Polokwane, she will be encouraging people from the outlying areas of the city to donate blood.
Thetela began her career with the SANBS in Pretoria in 2010 as a donor recruiter and in 2013 she was appointed as a donor relations practitioner.
She said she looks forward to the challenges of her new job in a strange city and has so far found her colleagues and the broader public extremely helpful, supportive and friendly.
She is passionate about teaching people who live in the rural areas of the province all about blood donation and why they should do so. “I grew up in a rural village near Pretoria and didn’t know a thing about donating blood until I went to study for a three-year marketing diploma at Tshwane University of Technology,” she explains.
She further said the SANBS always need ‘new blood’, being new donors and in her new position she will be concentrating on education geared towards gaining more donors.
“I have a lot more plans up my sleeve but for now I am still settling in,” she concluded.

Story and photo: KAREN VENTER
>>karen@observer.co.za