Mamaye intensifies blood donation campaign
Parent and Child Health Initiative (PACHI)-Balaka Chapter in conjunction with Balaka District Hospital has intensified a community-to-community awareness campaign with an aim of educating people directly in their respective communities on the importance of donating blood.
The initiative is also aimed at collecting enough blood to make sure that Balaka District Hospital has some in store at all times.
A PACHI official, who represented the organization at one of the recent awareness campaigns in the area of Group Village Headman Khoswe in Balaka, Duncan Mapwesera, said the initiative has been rolled into action following the reduction and unavailability of blood in Balaka and other hospitals.
He said communities need to be reminded donating as well as on the importance of having blood in hospitals at all times.
According to Mapwesela, his organizations has realized that the availability of blood in hospitals has been facing hiccups since most of the school going children are finishing their secondary education below the age of sixteen.
“We used to collect a lot of blood in secondary schools but as you can notice nowadays children are finishing school below 16 years old hence a need to try other avenues of sourcing blood and that is why we [PACHI] have decided to venture into communities,” explained Mapwesela.
Balaka District Hospital [Blood] Transfusion Committee Chairman Willy Kwenda applauded PACHI for the initiative which he said will help Balaka Hospital to have enough blood in stock.
According to Kwenda, Balaka District Hospital requires a minimum of 80 pints of blood which has not been the case despite being one of the leading districts reported to have collected blood.
The blood donation campaign has started in areas of Five Group Village Headmen.
Meanwhile, Balaka District Health Officer (DHO) Bertha Chikuse said the initiative has improved the availability of Blood at the Hospital.
Last year, only 45,000 units of blood were collected against the set target of 80,000 units per year according to the Ministry of Health.
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