The donation was geared towards stocking the country’s blood bank to ensure there is sufficient blood to administer to patients during emergency cases.

According to the Marketing and Communications Manager of ASHFOAM, Mr. Nana Yaw Ampem Darko Antwi, they partnered the Accra Dzorwulu Rotary Club and the USDA-Amplifies Ghana as part of its corporate social responsibilities in the month of love [February] at ASHFOAM’s headquarters, North Industrial Area-Accra.

The event saw over 200 people voluntarily donating blood during the exercise to support the blood bank.

The president of the Accra Dzorwulu Rotary Club, Mr. Isaac Lesta said the club partnered ASHFOAM as part of its annual blood donation exercise to sustain the National Blood Bank.

“We all know there are a lot of accidents on our roads and accident victims lose a lot of blood, so it will help in stocking the blood bank” Isaac Lesta stated.

Meanwhile, the Technical Specialist with the USDA-Amplifies Ghana, Comfort Kyerewa Acheampong advocated for more voluntary blood donation by Ghanaians.

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By: citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Dr. Shirley Owusu Ofori made the call at the 8^th edition of a blood donation exercise organized by MTN-Ghana as part activities to mark this year’s Valentine’s Day.

The annual event, which was held at the Seventh-Day Adventist Senior High in Kumasi, is a collaboration between MTN-Ghana and the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital’s Blood Bank.

Dr. Owusu Ofori emphasized that giving out blood must be a constant and committed endeavor by the public to keep the country’s blood banks running.

“As a country, we need not to be comfortable because we need a constant supply of blood all year round. We need to engage the public, we need to raise awareness, we need to get new donors on board each time, and we need our old donors to continually donate such that we have a constant supply all year round”.

She said Valentine’s Day was the best day for organizations and corporate bodies to support blood donations since giving a pint of blood could save lives, and it is also a way of showing love to the needy.

She commended MTN-Ghana for its consistency in supporting blood banks across the country for the past years to continually restock the blood banks.

MTN-Ghana pledges support for Blood Banks

MTN-Ghana’s regional commercial head for the Northern sector, Peter Bimpeh, has reiterated the company’s commitment to prioritize quality healthcare delivery in the country as part of its corporate social responsibilities.

He said the blood collected from the nationwide exercise will be used to restock the National Blood Banks as well as blood banks at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi, Effia Nkwanta Regional Hospital in Sekondi-Takoradi, Tamale Teaching Hospital, Bolgatanga Regional Hospital and the Cape Coast Regional Hospital.

According him, blood donation was necessary and essential for the country’s healthcare delivery.

He revealed that MTN-Ghana for the part eight years has donated 6,000 pints of blood to the KATH Blood Bank.

Students queue to donate

The about 1000 student population joined long queues to partake in the exercise.

The students, who were supervised by their tutors were screened by officials of the Blood Bank before finally donating the blood.

They expressed excitement and urged the general public to help restock the country’s blood banks.

The students also commended MTN-Ghana for choosing to hold this year’s Valentine’s Day edition of the blood donation at their school.

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By: Hafiz Tijani/Citifmonline.com/Ghana

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According to the Head of Administration at EOCO, Seidu Adams, they were inspired to do this after one of their colleagues urgently needed blood, and they had to fall on some staff members for help.

He said the initiative also forms part of the agency’s corporate social responsibilities.

“This exercise actually is informed by the fact that we recognize that as an institution we are part of corporate Ghana. As corporate Ghana, we also have certain social responsibilities apart from our mandate as a law enforcement institution. This exercise of blood donation was informed by a situation where one of us needed blood and we had to organize our staff to go and donate. When we told our staff about the situation, the response was so overwhelming. And from that call, we realized that there is the need to extend it to the larger society. That is what informed our action, It was a free will thing, it was not forced,” he said

“When there was a need for us to give a colleague, it was tremendous and overwhelming, we didn’t have to put up a notice. I just called the heads of department to inform them of the situation at hand. Within the next 15 minutes, I could count about 15 when we needed only three pints of blood. So it was that situation that we realized that people are willing to give to society, so we took it from there.”

EOCO is a specialized state agency tasked with a responsibility to monitor and investigate economic and organised crime, and on the authority of the Attorney General, prosecute offences to recover proceeds from crimes committed.

Seidu Adams said there was an agreement with the Korle-Bu Blood Bank to help coordinate and facilitate the exercise.

He called on other corporate institutions to follow their path to help save lives.

“We are social beings, we are human beings and as human beings we need to fit, we also have to recognize the fact that sickness is part of life and growth, so giving it out, it’s really good for all of us. So we encourage other institutions to join in” he added.

Akosua Brefewaa, a donor recruitment officer, in outlining the qualification criteria for the donation of blood, said  “You are supposed to be between the ages of 17 to 60, and when you come, you are supposed to have a good blood level which we will check for you, we check your BP, we check your pulse, so we just do some mini medical screening, and if you are successful, then you are allowed to donate.”

“The qualification basically is on your health status, it has nothing to do with heights or your size, but if you have a good blood level, you have a good body weight, which should be 50kg and above. You are within the ages of 17 to 60, you are not diabetic, you are not pregnant, you are not breastfeeding, yes, you can donate blood.”

She pledged the support of the Korle-Bu Blood Bank to any corporate institution interested in holding a blood donation exercise.would like to embark on this exercise.

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By: Ann-Shirley Ziwu/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post EOCO staff donate blood to Korle-Bu Blood Bank appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

According to the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the hospital, Major Gariba Pabi, “as a result of the recent emergency healthcare we provided at our facility as a result of the recent gas explosion, the blood reserve at our blood bank is going down”.

Making a passionate appeal through the Daily Graphic in an interview in Accra yesterday, Major Pabi called on “individuals, religious organisations and institutions to voluntarily assist the hospital in the donation of blood to beef up its reserve”.He expressed the hope that the hospital’s plea would be heard.The Blood Bank of the 37 Military Hospital has capacity to store 600 units of blood at a time. In the wake of the gas explosion, the hospital used about 150 units of blood on the victims who were rushed to the facility for treatment.

According to Major Pabi, the hospital would need 200 units of blood to shore up the stock.

“We cannot wait for the blood bank to deplete before making the appeal. We are, therefore, appealing to the public to assist us before we face an acute shortage which can result in the loss of lives,” he said.

Asked how the victims on admission at the hospital were faring, Major Pabi said they were responding to treatment, adding that some of them had been discharged.

On Thursday, December 22, 2016, nine people initially died in a gas explosion that occurred near the Ghana International Trade Fair Centre at La. The number of casualties eventually rose to 11.

About 40 others who sustained various degrees of injury were rushed to the Korle Bu Teaching, the 37 Military and the La General hospitals.

Eyewitnesses said the explosion occurred around 5.30 p.m. and swept through the street onto parts of the Trade Fair Centre.

Some of the injured were workers waiting for buses on a road that links the area to Tseaddo, Spintex and Teshie Tsui Bleoo.

Donation

In a related development, the Ghana Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors (CBOD), on December 26, 2016, donated GH¢11,000 to 22 of the victims of the La gas explosion at the 37 Military Hospital.

Each of the victims received a cash donation of GH¢500.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the CBOD, Mr Senyo Hosi, made the donation on behalf of the chamber.

He charged the government to, for once, crack the whip to forestall deaths caused by negligence at public places.

He said there were laws but it was unfortunate that people got away with negligence, irrespective of how grievous the outcome of their negligence was.

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Source: Graphic.com.gh

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The campaign, according to the Club, is to draw national attention to the need for people to donate blood voluntarily.

At an event to launch the programme, the Service Project Director for the Club, Maame Kwaba Stevens said, the initiative would address the shortage of blood in the country and make blood donation a lifestyle among Ghanaians.

“All the time, Korle Bu and 37 military hospitals call on people to donate blood. Donation must be a lifestyle. The country gets about half of the blood it needs and even if the current donors were donating half as much as they do, we won’t still meet the target. But usually people just wait till a loved one needs blood before they donate and that’s why it must be a lifestyle.”

She added that the donation would be done across the country by all the Rotary Clubs in each region to enable them stock the Blood Bank.

“We will start next week, that’s October 6^th to 8^th in Bolgatanga, Tamale, Wa. Then we will move to Sunyani, Kumasi, and then Cape Coast, Takoradi, Ho, Koforidua, and finally, the last one in Accra. With Christmas just around the corner, the best gift to give, is the gift of life and what other way than through blood donation.”

Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Blood Bank, Dr Justina Ansah said there was a need for constant donation since the bank was almost short of blood.

“Blood has a shelf life of 35 days so if you donate blood today within 35 days that blood cannot be used, that’s why people must donate constantly. People need to donate every day because the demand is high. On our part we have made available unit fridges to store blood. We recently distributed fridges so we now have the storage facilities but we don’t have the quantity of blood needed. So we are very happy about this nationwide campaign.”

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By: Felicia Osei/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The exercise was supported by Sant Nirankari Charitable Foundation, a humanitarian organisation in Dubai, to save lives of patients at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital and other health facilities in the country.

Donors from all walks of life who were eager to donate, started trooping to the premises of DPS International at Community 25 at about 5:00 am to participate in the exercise.

At about mid-morning, quite a multitude had flooded the event grounds, and it therefore came as no shock when it was observed that a total of over 30 Ghanaians and more than a hundred foreigners partook in the blood donation exercise which was sponsored by DPS International, Ghana, with support from B5 Plus Ltd, a steel manufacturing company in Tema.

Family of Mukesh Thakwani, Chairman of DSP International, Ghana, and B5 Plus Limited, was not left out of the exercise. Gulati Pankaj, Rakesh Goyal, Darshan Singh, Balden Raj Arora and many other volunteers also donated to support the project.

Mr. Gornam Singh, Head of Nirankari Mission, Dubai, was highly thankful for the gesture saying that humanitarianism is very significant to society.

He said blood plays a major role in saving lives especially that of pregnant women and is freely provided by the hospital hence the need for every qualified person to donate to the blood bank.

“My visit to Ghana has been memorable and I am impressed with the honesty Ghanaians showed and they are very sociable. I must say humanitarian exercise such as blood donation is very significant to save lives and that is the main reason why Nirankari Mission sees the importance to join,” he emphasized.

Mr. Mukesh Thakwani explained that, the exercise forms part of his outfit’s corporate social responsibilities.

“We decided to conduct the exercise in the school for the children to see and also learn how to donate or give back to society as a global awareness creation,” the Director of DPS International, Ghana stated.

“Blood degenerates and whether you donate or not, it will replenish so this exercise is going to be a routine exercise in the near future and everyone must join to save life.”

The Director of DPS International – Ghana, expressed his heartfelt appreciation to participants for their kind support.

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By: citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post DPS International organises blood donation exercise appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.