Some SHS students in the Central part of the Volta Region have urged the public to cultivate the habit of regularly donating blood to save lives. According to the students, it is more traumatizing to see people seriously in need of a blood transfusion but unable to get it due to lack of blood in the blood bank.

One of the students who spoke on condition of anonymity recounted how a family member nearly lost her life due to unavailability of her blood type at the time. According to the student, it was traumatizing seeing her family member go through so much pain and trauma.

“I watched her in pain and all she needed was blood to save her live which was more traumatizing to us as we watched her go through that horrific moment,” she recounted.

Leader of the MTN delegation in the Volta Region Mawuli Katahena said since its inception in 2011 the Valentine’s Day blood donation exercise have been a great success with heart warming stories of people whose lives have been saved through the exercise.

According Ken Katahena, a little over 100 pints of blood that was recorded in the first exercise, MTN has achieved great success with the help of the MTN Foundation and that they hope to collect 150 pints of blood in the Volta region and 3,500 nationwide.

He urged the public to always donate blood anytime they are called on and also to donate willingly to save precious lives.

The head of the blood bank in the Volta region Dr Vincent Fekpe said blood is the most precious gift that everyone can give to another and the public must be willing to donate blood at all times to save lives hence the reason why the Volta Regional Hospital and the Ghana blood bank is collaborating with MTN to collect blood to stock up the blood bank

Dr Vincent Fepke said he was hopeful that this year would record more success than the previous years by collecting more than the estimated pint blood  

The Blood donation which is annually organized by the MTN annually was this year held at the  Tsito Awudome Senior High School in the Ho West District of the Volta Region and was opened to both students and the public to help save lives.

It has been established that blood transfusions help patients undergoing surgery and other medical complications that require blood especially women and children and in order to maintain adequate blood supply, the World Health Organisation estimates that 1 to 3 percent of the population need to become blood donors.

According to the National Blood Service, Ghana has an estimated population based blood requirement of 270,000 units but only 160,000 units of blood are collected which leaves the country with a deficit of 40 percent.

MTN Foundation has declared the 2019  “the year of the customer” a year to delight customers at all touch points.” Through the MTN foundation several health projects that will help improve health care delivery is being executed.