Kwame Assenso Mensah
THE number of voluntary blood donation has increased since the introduction of Free Senior High School (SHS) programme.
Head of Blood Recruitment Unit of Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, (KATH) Kwame Asenso Mensah, disclosed this.
According to him the new programme, which keeps students in school all year round, has provided a sustained and good supply of blood to the blood bank.
“Today, we have a good stock of blood at the blood bank.
In the past, we only had them (students) when the schools were in session,” he stated.
Speaking to journalists during a blood donation exercise at the Calvary Charismatic Centre (CCC) in Kumasi, Mr Mensah indicated that the double track system had given the blood bank a consistent supply of blood from the students who are its major source.
The exercise, was organized by the church in honour of the head pastor Rev Ransford Obeng as he celebrated his 63rd birthday.
Rev Obeng explained that the blood donation exercise came out of the spirit of volunteerism after benefiting from society.
“All of us have benefitted from society. If there was no peace in society you cannot do anything.
For those who do business, if society did not patronize their merchant they wouldn’t have the kind of money they have,” he asserted.
According to the reverend minister, people ought to understand that they owe society their current success and therefore have to give back.
For him, giving blood also meant giving life to other people, and that the misconception about voluntary blood donation is a perpetuating of myth.
The CCC head pastor called on Ghanaians not to feel reluctant in donating blood as nothing would happen to them, while thanking his congregants for the high patronage.
From Ernest Kofi Adu, Kumasi