Mchinji District Team has done it again. 284 units of blood have been collected in a two weeks campaign that they held. This is a huge success story that cannot go unnoticed. What is their secret?
The second community blood campaign in Mchinji is done. With great pride, I announce that 284 units were collected during the two-week campaign. If memory serves me right, this is the first success story of its kind in Malawi.No organisation or company has ever collected this much of blood from the community.Those in the know will agree with me that collecting blood in the community has for a long time been a far-fetched idea. Most of the blood collected by Malawi Blood Transfusion Service (MBTS) is from students because communities are said to be full of misconceptions.With a lot of students now starting secondary school at a young age the blood donor pool in schools is decreasing tremendously.So in October last year, the district team decided to go against all odds and attempted a community blood campaign in the areas of T/A Nkanda and T/A Zulu. It was a two-week campaign. The first week was dedicated to community mobilisation and the second week was the bleeding. A total of 71 units were collected.After the campaign in October, the district team brought together all 71 blood donors, took them to the district hospital where they had the opportunity to see people receiving blood and lives being saved.Six months down the line they revisited the same areas and wolla, the numbers tripled. Their secret? Understanding the communities, sensitisation on why people should donate blood, learning from the previous campaign and most importantly retaining the blood donors.To us this is a huge success, because we are assured that more lives will be saved in the district and we now know that community blood campaigns work!!If Mchinji can do it, so can your community.