World Blood Donor Day 2019 with HERO Cameroon
Every year on June 14, the global community celebrates World Blood Donor Day (WBDD). Established in 2004, the event serves to recognize the millions of people around the world who give the life-saving gift of blood on a voluntary, altruistic unpaid basis to help save the lives and improve the health of others. The day also seeks to encourage more people to become voluntary blood donors and underlines the importance of regular donation to prevent shortages.
In Cameroon, the annual demand for blood and blood products is estimated at about 400,000 pints of blood. Available statistics show that in 2015, 73,000 pints of blood were collected as against 49,000 in 2014 . Even though slight increase has been recorded during the last few years, much still needs to be done to meet the expected demand. With this in mind for the past two years, HERO Cameroon has successfully organized two blood donation events at different sites in the Southwest and Littoral regions. This year, in line with the theme “Blood donation and universal access to safe blood transfusion”, HERO Cameroon organized an action filled blood donation drive.
Our main objective
- Promote the spirit of voluntary blood donation by Health Science students of the Faculty of Health Sciences University of Buea.
In order to achieve our objective, our tasks specifically were to
- Donate at least 20 liters of blood each to the Limbe regional hospital, Baptist Mutengene hospital and Solidarity Health Foundation.
- Educate the students of the Faculty of Health Sciences on the importance of voluntary blood donation in health care delivery.
- Ensure blood donation becomes a regular practice among the students.
The project was intended for students from the Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS), University of Buea and other voluntary donors and took place on the 8th June 2019 at the FHS campus.
A total of 250 volunteers were educated on the importance of blood donation with most participants presenting themselves at the mobile blood banks present after informed consent. After a long day with enthusiastic participants, we collected over 50 liters of whole blood which was properly screened for diseases like HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis B/C and distributed to all hospitals involved.
Following reports from the hospitals, after the donation campaign, many students have visited the blood banks for voluntary blood donations.
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Have you ever donated blood? What do you think about becoming a voluntary donor?
