Students, staff donate blood to support ‘Save a Life’ programme

Some patriotic and nationalistic students and teachers of the Manya Krobo Senior high school in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality of the eastern region as well as staff of MTN Ghana in the Eastern Region joined the public on Valentine’s Day February 14 to donate blood to support the MTN ‘Save a Life’ campaign.

MTN Ghana has been able to collect some 9,500 pints of blood since the inception of the ‘Save a Life’ campaign and looks ahead to achieving the 10,000 pints milestone it has set for itself.

From a little over a 100 pints of blood which was recorded in the first exercise, MTN has achieved great successes.

There is a need for public spirited individuals and entities to become voluntary blood donors in order to meet the World Health Organisation’s requirement of 1 to 3 percent of the population having to become blood donors in order maintain adequate blood supply in the country.

According to the National Blood Service, Ghana has an estimated population-based blood requirement of 270,000 units of blood but only 160,000 units of blood are collected, which leaves the country with a deficit of 40%’.

Some of the students speaking to this reporter after donating their blood commended MTN for sustaining the programme and hoped it would continue so far as people need blood.

The “Save a Life” project is an annual Valentine’s Day blood donation exercise.

Mr. Ebenezer Okaikoi-Tetteh, Territory Sales Controller speaking to the media after the programme thanked the company’s partners in the blood donation drive for their immense contribution towards the annual exercise and for helping the exercise grow over the years.

‘’I take the opportunity to welcome our staff donors and steering teams who work tirelessly with our partners to deliver this event. With your commitment we have grown this program into one of the most attractive projects being implemented by the MTN Foundation’’ he said.

The initiative started in 2011 in response to calls made by the National Blood Transfusion Service for voluntary contributions to replenish critically low stocks of blood.