The Periscope Reporter
The Department of Haematology and Blood Transfusion, Federal Teaching Hospital, FTH Gombe, Gombe State, Northeast Nigeria has commemorated the World Blood Donor Day on Wednesday.
The Day is celebrated every year on June 14 to promote awareness regarding the need for safe blood and to appreciate the contribution of voluntary blood donors in saving lives.
“The exercise has got about 13 pints of blood as of Friday”, a source revealed to the Periscope.
The source has attributed the reason for the unimpressive donor apathy to the state of poverty; pointing out that “people, particularly the unenlightened, fear they may get sick after donating blood and geting treatment will be difficult, due to the constraints associated with finance
Little they do know that he who donates blood will even be healthier and happier.
“Some of the rather courageous volunteers couldn’t get to donate after blood screening, as a results of infections, the infusion of which would be catastrophic”.
Communication consultant would advise that there ought to be aggressive awareness campaign to be able to have the citizenry key into to free blood donation spirit.
The institution’s corporate communications officers, PROs, image makers or information and media relations officers as they are variously referred to, must be fully involved, if not alowed to lead in organising and managing events, in the institutions, with a view to achieving desired results.
Publicity is necessary for awareness campaigns and programme to be successful; to achieve this, media relations is therefore, highly necessary. It is one aspect of an event management that public relations officers should handle effectively.
There is the need for the Haematologists to turn the unimpressive statistics, which revealed that “it is only 5% of the blood donation that is free, 60% is paid, while 35% of the donation is done by patient relatives, in Nigeria”.
Aggressive sensitisation using the media will help change the narrative.
“The need for blood is universal but access to blood for all those who need it is not.
“Blood shortages are particularly acute in developing countries. To ensure that everyone who needs safe blood has access to it, all countries need voluntary, unpaid donors who give blood regularly,” said the WHO, while announcing the World Blood Donor Day 2021.
According to a report by the Mental Health Foundation, helping others can:
* Reduce stress
* Improve emotional well-being and physical health
* Get rid of negative feelings
* Provide a sense of belonging and reduce isolation