<<Print>>

The shortage of blood at the National Blood Bank can be solved if one per cent of Ghana�s population donates blood regularly, Mrs Sophia Blankson, a Blood Donor Recruitment Officer, has stated. According to her, although numerous education programmes have been held to educate the public on the significance of blood donation, the bank�s major challenge still remains the lack of voluntary donors, and appealed to Ghanaians to donate to help address the perennial shortages in the country. Mrs Blankson was speaking to the Daily Graphic yesterday at a blood donation exercise organised by St John�s Grammar School and the National Blood Bank in Accra. The exercise The exercise, which formed part of activities marking the school�s 60th anniversary celebration, was expected to generate about 500 pints of blood to support the blood bank to effectively provide blood to the various hospitals in the country. The School Chaplin, Rev. Mrs Betty Baidoo, told the Daily Graphic that the exercise was the school�s contribution to the development of society. �We want to be of help to the community and the nation as a whole and also encourage the students to be patriotic, since the blood is going to save lives,� she said. According to her, although students have been donating blood to the bank twice every year, this year�s exercise is very important to them, since it forms part of their anniversary. Public contribution For his part, the Public Relations and Communication Officer of the National Blood Bank Service, Mr Stephen Addai-Mensah, said the exercise was to bring blood donation exercises to the doorsteps of Ghanaians, since the voluntary appeal by the service had not yielded any encouraging results. He appealed to all Ghanaians, corporate bodies and religious organisations to donate voluntarily to save the lives of the less privileged in society.