PIX: A voluntary donor giving out blood during one of the earlier ‘Save a Life’ outreach programmes by MTN Ghana 

Story:

MTN GHANA Foundation has announced the comeback of its annual blood donation exercise dubbed “Save a Life” after a two year break due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The program was initiated to give staff of MTN, its trade partners and the public the opportunity to show love on Valentine’s Day by donating a unit of blood to help save lives.

This year, the campaign will take place in all 16 regions simultaneously on Tuesday, 14th February 2023 between 8am-4pm.

The annual Valentine’s Day blood donation exercise this year is targeted at collecting 4000 units of blood to stock various blood banks across the country.

Senior Manager:

Commenting on the upcoming event, Senior Manager for Sustainability and Social Impact, Robert Kuzoe reiterated the Foundation’s commitment toward the improvement in health care delivery in Ghana.

“By running this blood donation exercise, it is our desire to help alleviate the high numbers of maternal mortality cases since loss of blood is one of the leading causes of maternal deaths”.

Mr. Kuzoe urged people to go out in their numbers to all the bleeding points in the various regions to express their love on Valentine’s Day by donating a unit of blood to help save a life.

“According to the National Blood Transfusion Service, about 36% of the national blood supply is from voluntary donations and this is not encouraging. We entreat our staff, stakeholders, and the entire public to help stock the blood banks especially after the end of year festivities and most especially post pandemic effects of reduction in voluntary blood donation”, he said.

Background:

Since the inception of the initiative in 2011, over 20,000 units of blood have been collected.

The “Save A Life” project has earned the MTN Foundation some recognition including the “Highest Corporate Blood Donor” in 2013, the “Second Highest Corporate Donor” in 2014 and one of the Highest Corporate Donors” in 2015.

BY Michael Ofosu-Afriyie 

Kumasi