For Three consecutive days, over 100 donors from various walks of life came to CCBRT to donate their blood as a truly priceless gift of life for mothers and babies this holiday season. Experience from Mama Ye! campaign blood drives made me aware of the challenges of blood donation/collection. The National Blood Transfusion Services (NBTS) estimates that Dar es Salaam needs 5000 units per month but collects only 3,500. I therefore felt honoured to support CCBRT’s first blood drive conducted at the site of the new Maternal and Newborn Care hospital in Dar es Salaam to ensure the mothers and babies who need the blood survive.This is a daring, bold and noble move by CCBRT in so many ways, inspired by its programme to build the capacity of 23 facilities in the city to provide better MNH services. Recent statistics show that Maternal Mortality Rate is now at 556per 100,000 live births (TDHS 2015-16) in Tanzania. The main cause being blood loss during delivery.The timingFor the NBTS, the holiday period is the toughest time for blood collection because the main collection points--school and colleges—are closed. Therefore CCBRT’s effort has been appreciated by NBTS.The themeClosely aligned to the timing the slogan “giving a blood is the best holiday gift”, directly appealed and invited to rethink and reconsider their definition of gifts and how meaningful they are. Nothing surpasses blood as a gift—life itself! There isn’t a better gift.The locationThe blood drive took place at the site of CCBRT’s new Maternity & Newborn Hospital due to open in 2018. The hospital will complementing outstanding work of CCBRT’s Capacity Building Programme supporting facilities across all Dar es Salaam municipalities, During the launch Erwin Telemans emphasizes the need to build a culture for blood donation in throughout the year because mothers do give birth all year round.The people:I have so much respect for the people who decide to donate blood. At CCBRT I met students, expatriates, employees of companies who came in groups. I was especially touched by many of the donors. One passer-by who saw our banner at the gate inviting people to donate blood. “I saw it yesterday, but I was busy so I made an effort to come today,” he said. Another was an expatriate who came running, arriving about 5:15 p.m. It was past closing time but he apologised for coming late because of work, but politely asked be considered for donation because he was travelling that night.And then there was a group of students who did not wake up that morning planning to donate blood. But staff from NBTS passed at a place where they were doing extra classes at Mwenge and talked to them about the donation. Just like that they came over. All these are just exceptionally good people! I have so much admiration and respect for them. They could have easily made excuses not to come, but they made extra effort to be there.I applaud and sincerely all the blood donors in this country. You save so many mothers and make a difference in their families.See picture of the event hereListen to CCBRT CEO, Erwin Telemans speak during the blood donation drive. Click herePlease read more about CCBRT on the website
For Three consecutive days, over 100 donors from various walks of life came to CCBRT to donate their blood as a truly priceless gift of life for mothers and babies this holiday season. Experience from Mama Ye! campaign blood drives made me aware of the challenges of blood donation/collection. The National Blood Transfusion Services (NBTS) estimates that Dar es Salaam needs 5000 units per month but collects only 3,500. I therefore felt honoured to support CCBRT’s first blood drive conducted at the site of the new Maternal and Newborn Care hospital in Dar es Salaam to ensure the mothers and babies who need the blood survive.This is a daring, bold and noble move by CCBRT in so many ways, inspired by its programme to build the capacity of 23 facilities in the city to provide better MNH services. Recent statistics show that Maternal Mortality Rate is now at 556per 100,000 live births (TDHS 2015-16) in Tanzania. The main cause being blood loss during delivery.The timingFor the NBTS, the holiday period is the toughest time for blood collection because the main collection points--school and colleges—are closed. Therefore CCBRT’s effort has been appreciated by NBTS.The themeClosely aligned to the timing the slogan “giving a blood is the best holiday gift”, directly appealed and invited to rethink and reconsider their definition of gifts and how meaningful they are. Nothing surpasses blood as a gift—life itself! There isn’t a better gift.The locationThe blood drive took place at the site of CCBRT’s new Maternity & Newborn Hospital due to open in 2018. The hospital will complementing outstanding work of CCBRT’s Capacity Building Programme supporting facilities across all Dar es Salaam municipalities, During the launch Erwin Telemans emphasizes the need to build a culture for blood donation in throughout the year because mothers do give birth all year round.The people:I have so much respect for the people who decide to donate blood. At CCBRT I met students, expatriates, employees of companies who came in groups. I was especially touched by many of the donors. One passer-by who saw our banner at the gate inviting people to donate blood. “I saw it yesterday, but I was busy so I made an effort to come today,” he said. Another was an expatriate who came running, arriving about 5:15 p.m. It was past closing time but he apologised for coming late because of work, but politely asked be considered for donation because he was travelling that night.And then there was a group of students who did not wake up that morning planning to donate blood. But staff from NBTS passed at a place where they were doing extra classes at Mwenge and talked to them about the donation. Just like that they came over. All these are just exceptionally good people! I have so much admiration and respect for them. They could have easily made excuses not to come, but they made extra effort to be there.I applaud and sincerely all the blood donors in this country. You save so many mothers and make a difference in their families.See picture of the event hereListen to CCBRT CEO, Erwin Telemans speak during the blood donation drive. Click herePlease read more about CCBRT on the website