Under the supervision of Maina Emmanuel Djoulde, Deputy General Manager of the National Blood Transfusion Service, staff and members of blood donor associations took the opportunity of a fitness walk on 8 June 2024 to encourage Cameroonians to donate blood.
In prelude to World Blood Donor Day celebrated on 14 June every year, the National Blood Transfusion Service intensifies awareness raising campaigns as part of activities geared towards reducing donor apathy. This year, the NBTS has banked on sensitisation in public spaces such as markets, churches and the streets. The aim is to meet and talk to people of all walks of life on the importance of giving blood to save lives.
Under the guise of a fitness walk on 8 June 2024, the staff of the NBTS alongside, members of blood donor associations, civil society organisations working for the promotion of blood donation, personnel of some hospitals and other medical facilities shared educative tracts to citizens along the itinerary of the walk. From the esplanade of the ministry of Public Health through Camair to the Yaounde Town Hall and back, the hundreds that turned up for the sports walk joined NBTS to reiterate the call for all and sundry to become voluntary blood donors.
At a time when many Cameroonians are still sceptical about blood donation, it is worth saying that the annual blood needs are way above 400.000pints. In its endeavour to fill the gap, the NBTS is fine tuning strategies to recruit to recruit and maintain voluntary donors as well as increasing educative talks to change the mindset of Cameroonians. According to Maina Emmanuel Djoulde, Deputy General Manager of the NBTS, “the complain that people have that they give freely and when in need they are expected to pay some amount will disappear when we all cultivate the habit of giving blood regularly. By so doing, our hospitals will have sufficient quantities and will no longer ask for replacement donors or other conditions that are usually levied to patients before they obtain blood”.
Apart from educative talks organised here and there, the NBTS is also carrying out blood drives. The commemorative ceremony on the 14th will hold at the hall of the Red Cross, where donors will be recognized for their heroic act of donation. The theme of year’s celebration is “20 years of giving: Thank you donors”
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Maina Emmanuel Djoulde, Directeur Général Adjoint du CNTS
« Nous reconnaissons la bravoure des donneurs bénévole du sang»
Au moment où nous célébrons le donneur bénévole du sang, l’importance de l’acte de donner le sang n’est pas à discuter. Ils sont des sauveurs de vies et nous les encourageons pour cet acte d’héroïsme. Nous profitons de la circonstance pour mobiliser l’ensemble de la communauté nationale afin qu’elle soit consciente de l’importance du don du sang. Ce que nous dénonçons à savoir je donne librement mon sang et après on me demande de payer lorsque j’en ai besoin va tomber lorsque nous seront nombreux a donner du sang et les formations sanitaires disposerons d’assez de produits sanguins pour n’avoir plus ni a exiger les donneur de remplacement ni a poser quelques autres condition. L’appel est donc au don de sang de la part de tous et le plus régulièrement possible sans exiger de compensation. Pour donner le sang, il faut que soyez en bonne santé, être âgée de 18 à 60 ans et pesant au moins 50kilos.
Claudette Chin
