Some students voluntarily donating blood
The annual blood donation exercise by MTN Ghana Foundation dubbed, ‘Save A Life’ campaign in the Western Region has mobilised 750 pints of blood at the 2024 edition of the exercise.
The campaign organised on February 14 every year mobilises the public to voluntarily donate blood to support the Blood Bank of Effia-Nkwanta Regional Hospital in Sekondi and several district health facilities in the region.
This year, the exercise in the Western Region was organised at three centres including Takoradi Technical Institute, Fijai Senior High School and St. Mary’s Boys’ Senior High School in Takoradi.
MTN Regional Senior Manager, Prince Owusu Nyarko, mentioned that since its inception in 2011, the campaign in partnership with various institutions has yielded very positive results.
“We have been able to help save lives across the country. Through our collective efforts, people in dire need of medical assistance have received attention,” he noted.
He disclosed that this year, MTN has set for itself, a target of 7,000 units of blood. “We have witnessed remarkable achievements, with over 26,000 pints of blood collected to date,” he said.
He also revealed that following MTN’s comeback in 2023 due to a two-year break as a result of the COVID 19 pandemic, the MTN’s campaign yielded positive results with 6440 units, adding, “The highest so far since its inception.”
Officer at the Donor Care Unit of Effia Nkwanta Hospital Blood Bank, Mary Avormey, praised MTN for the initiative.
She was hopeful the annual campaign will help address critical gaps in blood supply and promote voluntary blood donation thereby contributing to saving several lives and also reducing maternal mortality in the region.
She, however, mentioned that the main referral health facility in the region would need more blood for the blood bank and appealed to other organizations to emulate what MTN is doing by encouraging more Ghanaians to undertake voluntary blood donations.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi