The National Blood Transfusion Services Centre is encouraging eligible donors to give blood voluntarily to save the lives of South Sudanese with serious health challenges.
The call comes as South Sudan joins the rest of the world to celebrate World Blood Donor Day, which is held on June 14 each year.
The slogan for 2023 World Blood Donor Day campaign is “Give blood, give plasma, share life, share often.” It focuses on patients requiring life-long transfusion support and underlines the role every single person can play by giving the valuable gift of blood or plasma.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj in Juba on Tuesday, Dr. Narik Wal, the Director of National Blood Transfusion Services, called on the public to become members of the large family of blood donors to support the work of the blood transfusion centre.
“My message to all these people is come forward and donate blood and our slogan this year is give blood, share life, share often,” Dr. Narik said.
“So, we should be part of this community, give blood and when we save a life, we will be rewarded somehow by God because it is humanitarian work that you chose to do,” she added.
The health official said the blood, which is donated, is not enough to meet the high demand for blood at the health facility.
“What they give makes sense but not enough for the demand we are having within the country and we need everybody to respond to our campaign,” she said.
She refuted false believe that anybody who donates blood may collapse or feel weak or die.
“If you come in and take the blood without going through the process, without checking the history background, you could fear but there are people who are well equipped and trained and they will go through your history background,” she said.
Dr. Narik revealed that they launched a campaign aimed at creating awareness so that the public can donate blood to help those in need.
“We need to know how much blood you have in your body and you are supposed to have six to eight litres within your body, and at the same time, what we are taking is not that much, we are taking less than half, and we take 450 ml,” she said.
Widespread cultural challenges, especially beliefs and fears associated with blood donation, continue to deter enrolment in South Sudan.
South Sudan, according to WHO guidelines, should be collecting an estimated 120,000 units for its population of about 12.9 million people.