The President of the organisation, Mr Mawuli Gawu, last Saturday mobilised 25 volunteers to the hospital for the exercise. But after the screening exercise, only 18 volunteers were eligible to donate blood.

Mr Gawu, however, gave an assurance that his outfit would be organising another exercise in the next four months and expressed the hope that more volunteers would respond to the campaigns.

Explaining the rationale for the exercise to the Daily Graphic in an interview in Accra over the weekend, Mr Gawu said he was moved by a story in the January 4, 2017 edition of the paper, which quoted an official of the hospital calling on the public to help re-stock the hospital’s blood bank.

“The story touched our hearts and we felt we needed to mobilise volunteers to assist in the exercise.

“In fact, statistics show that there will be no blood shortage if eligible people donate blood once a year,” he added.

Appreciation

A Senior Biomedical Scientist at the 37 Military Hospital, Captain Y. K. Kissiedu, expressed appreciation to the donors for their effort.

“Your efforts are very much encouraging and we hope others will join soon,” he added.

Background

The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the 37 Military Hospital, Major Gariba Pabi, on January 3, 2017, made a passionate appeal to the public to donate blood to the hospital following the emergency care provided to victims of the recent gas explosion near the Trade Fair Centre at La in Accra. The incident claimed 11 lives and caused injuries to more than 40 others.

Making the appeal through an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra, Major Pabi called on individuals, religious organisations and institutions to voluntarily donate blood to the hospital to beef up its reserve.

The blood bank at the hospital has the capacity to store 600 units of blood at a time. And in the wake of the gas explosion, the hospital used about 150 units of blood on the victims.

According to Major Pabi, the hospital would need 200 units of blood to shore up its stock.