31 Mar 2014

The Botswana Music Union (BOMU) in the north has collaborated with the Botswana National Blood Donors Association to mobilise the Francistown community to donate blood.

In an interview at the event over the weekend, the chairperson of Blood Donor Association (North), Kefilwe Bojong  said since artists were crowd pullers, they felt they were better positioned to recruit more members of the society into donating blood.

Bojong said it was her organisation’s objective to ensure that more members were recruited into the association in the form of donors and supporters. She explained that her association promoted safe blood donation awareness campaigns that were free from alcohol and by involving artists in such campaigns people could also realise that entertainment was not all about drugs and alcohol.

Bojong said smoking was also not good for a donor as it could expose one to diseases such as lung diseases. She said donors should lead a healthy lifestyle. She cited that the HIV pandemic impacted negatively on blood donation because it disadvantaged some potential donors.

She said the country needed 40 000 units yearly but the north and the south region contributed only 21 000 units while 30 units on average were needed daily for blood transfusions.

The BOMU Chapter 3 secretary, Fumani Tekere said the union was approached by the blood donors association to assist in mobilising artists to participate in the campaign as it was difficult for the association to approach them as individuals.

Tekere said since BOMU felt the blood donation initiative needed a multi-sectoral approach hence they welcomed the idea of the collaboration. He said the artists turn out was impressive as they did not only assist in disseminating information but also donated blood during the event.

Tekere said by doing so the artists were also playing their social responsibility role. He said the collaboration was a pilot project and once successful it would be taken to national level.

The event was not only characterised by blood collection but also by activities such as stage performance from various artists, tug of war and face paintings. ends