100 Minutes for Life
November 10th, 2009 by Raquel Córdoba
If ArcelorMittal Ostrava, in the Czech Republic, is today the biggest corporate blood donor in its region, it is thanks to the 519 colleagues who participated in an initiative called ‘100 Minutes for Life’. Radim Raszka not only was one of them, but he also encouraged his colleagues to take part through a bold comic. We asked him how he came up with the idea…
“I heard that the number of blood donors dropped by about 10,000 donors every year and there was lack of blood in the Czech Republic. And I got an idea to set up an onsite campaign.
I had a great advantage that I was one of those employees who have never given blood before. That’s why I could imagine what kind of information I’d like to know before deciding to make a donation: How does the blood giving look like? Am I fit for blood giving? And where can I give blood? Answers to these questions are not always easy so I decided to transform them into a comic.
As a comic is not a mere description, but affects emotions, I needed to find somebody who is well known to all employees. And so we found Bára – CEO’s personal interpreter who everybody in Ostrava knows (by the way, is it just our impression or she could be the sweet version of Lisbeth Salander, the heroine of the Millennium trilogy?!).
I took pictures of Bára at the Blood Centre and made a comic in which everybody can see the individual steps of blood giving and see for themselves that it is really no big deal. Bára was so excited with the comic that she wrote all the texts of the comic herself!! So the story is very authentic.
Finally it was necessary to come up with a name for the whole campaign. As I wanted to avoid the word ‘blood’ (it does not always evoke pleasant emotions in people) I chose the name of ‘100 Minutes for Life’. Since the whole blood giving process takes 100 minutes (individual examinations and then 10 minutes of the blood giving itself). 100 minutes is not much and everybody can handle it. So in 100 minutes I also saved somebody’s life and I am proud of it.“
To read the comic, click on the image…
Congratulations to Radim and to the entire Czech team!
Collaboration: Ivo Sterba, ArcelorMittal Ostrava, Communications
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Martin Simard
On May 29, 2008, the 51-year-old company Québec Cartier Mining changed its brand name for ArcelorMittal Mines Canada. Sixty days later, the ArcelorMittal brand rollout was completed and the entire face of the Company had changed.
Even though we had many different shareholders over the last haft century, we always kept our own brand name. And […]
November 10th, 2009 by mar4ella
Great idea!
November 11th, 2009 by Mary Carey
very clever
November 11th, 2009 by Lucas Vilela
Great idea. We also create campaigns for blood donation here in ArcelorMittal Monlevade, Brazil. The iniciative from Czech Republic will be an inspiration for us.
November 13th, 2009 by Miro
wonder how many you would get if it was a donation without pay off
November 16th, 2009 by Radim
Actually 100 minutes for life is a voluntary activity without pay off. People just want to help somebody else with no reward.
November 26th, 2009 by Angelique
the comic is a great idea!
and blood giving should be campaigned for in every plant.