Donate blood and save lives

As the Gambia commemorates World Blood Donor Day, it is important for people to go voluntarily to donate blood at the various health facilities in the country in order to save lives.

It is important to know that the life saved could be that of our family members.

For a country to have an effective blood bank system, people have to contribute to the effective management of the system.

It is also the duty of the National Blood Transfusion Service to recruit regular blood donors, both at the village and regional level, and to accelerate the establishment of blood transfusion facilities capable of covering the entire country.

For there to be an effective and efficient national blood transfusion system in place, the government and the private sector have to provide adequate logistics to enable them to contact patients, in order to ensure fast distribution of blood and blood products to all health facilities.

The participation of voluntary blood donor associations should be the cornerstone of every blood transfusion system.

We call on the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to appoint blood donor ambassadors in the regions, as this will make their work easy.

It is time that the public forget about this notion that if you donate blood you will lose a lot, as this belief is not right.

Some times people will have a patient at the hospital, but once the doctor advises them to donate blood to their relative or family member they start to fear.

We have to know that as far as one is healthy and fit, the individual can donate blood.

Let us donate blood for the sake of protecting ourselves, and that of our family members.

The right equipment should also be provided for the National Blood Transfusion Service to use.

We would like to thank Trust Bank Gambia Limited and WHO for their support to blood donation campaigns over the years.