10 Jun 2018

Palapye District Health Management Team (DHMT) and Pledge 25 Club recently held a blood donation campaign to encourage Palapye residents to donate blood and save lives.

National Blood Transfusion Services (NBTS) officer, Ms Tumelo Ramalebana expressed concern in an interview that the residents were still reluctant to donate blood highlighting that out of a big population of the fast-growing Palapye they got about 400 bags of blood donated per year, which was very low.

“Looking at the population of Palapye we should be getting at least 1 000 bags per year from Palapye,” she said.

She said as part of their campaign strategies, they had decided to tag along government departments and private entities as blood donors, but it was a pity that the interest was still low.

“When talking about entities such as Morupule Coal Mine we expect to receive an impressing number of blood donors looking at their numbers, unfortunately, the highest we can get is only 50 donors in a year,” explained Ms Ramalebana.

Ms Ramalebana also emphasised on educating the public on the importance of blood donation.

She said even though there were only six blood donation facilities in the country, her department had always made efforts to reach out to those who were far from these facilities.

For her part, acting chief medical officer at Palapye Primary Hospital, Dr Ineeleng Sebolaakhudu urged the youth to come forward and donate blood, saying shortage of blood was a very worrying factor which required all to act.

She said the aim was to help NBTS reach their target which was to collect 45 000 bags per annum saying in the past years they could not reach the target which led to shortage of blood in hospitals.

Furthermore, she revealed that 45 per cent of blood donated was from the students, addiung that during school vacations, health facilities struggled to get blood supply. She called on the youth to take responsibility and ensure health for all by taking part in blood donation.

She also called on stakeholders’ collaboration saying shortage of blood in laboratories affected all and if all departments could take responsibility they could make a huge impact in the lives of Batswana.

Meanwhile, Dean of Student Affairs at the Botswana International University of Science and Technology Dr Kitso Sedisa said the health ministry was doing ‘a sterling job’ through the blood donation campaigns. ENDs