The National Social Security Fund and Uganda Blood Transfusion Services are organising a weeklong blood donation drive in response to a national appeal for blood by the national blood bank.
The donation exercise, organised by the Fund in conjunction with UBTS takes place over 5 days from December 6th to 10th at Workers House in Kampala.
“As a socially responsible organization, NSSF is in partnership with UBTS and the Ministry of Health to mobilize our staff and the general public in response to their appeal to donate blood."
"This is one of our various initiatives through which we are contributing to the well being of the community,” NSSF Managing Director Richard Byarugaba said yesterday during launch of the campaign.
Byarugaba added that NSSF will broaden the blood donation drives to include all its 24 offices across the country.
“We hold blood donation drives annually and our plan is to expand this initiative to cover the whole country,” he said.
The Director, UBTS Dr. Dorothy Kyeyune said that they expect to collect at least 200 units of blood over the five days.
She said that the country needs about 16,000 units of blood for the month of December alone.
“We are experiencing a high demand for safe blood in hospitals across the country, and we expect the demand to increase. Traditionally, there is always a high demand for blood at this time of the year and during the end of year holidays,” she said.
According to UBTS, only individuals above the age of 17 without any health complications can donate blood. Donors must also be free from malaria at least 3 weeks prior to donation.
Statistics from the Ministry of Health show that 60% of the blood collected is used by children due to a high incidence of malaria in Uganda.
The rest is used mostly by cancer patients, accident victims and expectant mothers among others.
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