By: Makutu Manneh
Gambians on Saturday lauded the Gambia Armed forces after their personnel came out to donate blood during a blood donation exercise spearheaded by Rotaract Club of Fajara.
Hatab Saidy, President of Rotaract Club Fajara, who commended the National Armed forces of The Gambia for answering to their call by donating blood, said the action of the soldiers was commendable.
Saidy said the Blood donation exercise was in response to the recent cases of maternal deaths in the country.
He said one of the issues responsible for the loss of lives during labour is lack of blood.
“The Women losing their lives during labour are our sisters, mothers and Aunts and it is everyone’s responsibility to put an end to that,” he said.
Mr. Saidy challenged individuals, organizations and communities to emulate what they are doing (Rotaract Club of Fajara).
He thanked the Kanifing General Hospital and the National Blood transfusion service for their support.
Saffie Abia from the National blood transfusion services expressed delight for being part of the initiative organized by these young people.
“It is rare to have young people organize events like this, so thank you Rotaract club of Fajara. Blood is a perishable good that cannot be manufactured, but rather only gotten from voluntary donors,” she said.
She said their hospitals are always facing challenges of lack of blood in very critical situations.
She said that being the case, people should make it a habit of donating blood to hospitals.
Kawsu Jaiteh, a representative of the Kanifing General Hospital said as hospital personnel, they always saw lives being lost due to lack of blood in the hospitals.
“These are people who can sometimes be saved if blood were available,’ he said.
Mr. Jaiteh said donating blood has benefits such as saving lives, helping individuals lose calories/fat, prevent heart attacks and allow people to know their health status for free
After the speeches, donors went through screening process before blood was collected from them.
Rotaract club was aimed at mitigating blood related maternal deaths and strengthen child and maternal health in The Gambia. The project was dubbed ‘Blood for WOMEN’.
Rotaract Club was in partnership with National Blood Transfusion services and the Kanifing General Hospital.