MTN Ghana Foundation secures 6000 units of blood for the national blood service in its annual ...

19th Feb 2024 | Source: MTN Ghana

Students of Accra Academy donating blood during MTN Save a Life campaign

MTN Ghana has collected over 5909 units of blood at its 2024 Save-a-Life campaign. The annual campaign organized to augment shortfalls at blood banks in Ghana, saw thousands of people participating at designated bleeding centres in all 16 regions across the country.

Adwoa Wiafe, the Chief Corporate Services and Sustainability Officer at MTN Ghana, in her remarks at the opening ceremony in Accra said, “We have all heard, at least in the media, some of the harrowing stories of unfortunate incidents that could easily have been avoided if blood was within easy reach. That is why, we, at the MTN Ghana Foundation together with MTN Employees have taken it upon ourselves to organize this life saving event every Valentine’s Day since 2011 not only to donate blood but also to raise awareness about the importance of voluntary blood donations and show our commitment to the health and wellbeing of our community”.

Dr. Steve Paintsil, Medical Officer, National Blood Service, Korle Bu congratulated MTN for the blood donation drive. He said, “the National Blood Service (NBS) sincerely congratulates the MTN Ghana Foundation for organizing yet another nationwide blood donation drive to help stock the nation's blood banks. In most emergency cases, blood must be readily available for transfusion to avert untimely deaths. It is in light of the above, that the National Blood Bank wishes MTN well”.

The following breakdown illustrates the success of the blood donation drive across the various regions.

REGION	UNITS COLLECTED
Greater Accra	531
Western	1058
Western North	198
Eastern	460
Volta	165
Oti	95
Central	532
Northern	621
Savannah	164
Upper East	268
Upper west	260
North East	191
Bono	278
Bono East	271
Ahafo	154
Ashanti	663
TOTAL	5909

Voluntary blood donations form only 28.6% of the national blood supply. Maternal health is a leading casualty of the lack of blood. With low levels of blood, healthcare delivery will continue to suffer. Through the Save-a-Life campaign, MTN has provided the much-needed support to the National Blood Bank to help alleviate some of the challenges they face.

With the completion of this year’s blood exercise, MTN Ghana through the Save-a-Life campaign has collected over 31,909 units of blood.

MTN takes the opportunity to thank its employee volunteers, all donors and all of its partner hospitals and schools and bleeding centres across the country.