RBC staff donates blood
Kigali, June 15, 2012. This Monday June 11, 2012 the RBC staff voluntarily donated blood in order to save lives. This noble act was done in the framework of the preparation of the World Donor Day that was celebrated on June 14, 2012. The National Centre for Blood Transfusion was carrying out a number of campaigns on local radios encouraging blood donations.
According to Mr. GATABAZI Jean Marie Vianney, the Director of Behavioral Change Communication Unit in Rwanda Health Communication Centre disclosed that as the saying goes “charity begins at home” RBC staff should be the first to donate blood. He added that according to his blood donation experience he has been blessed for that noble action.
In the Press conference that took place on June 12, 2012 at Media High Council, The acting Director General of Regional Centre for blood transfusion in Kigali, Dr. Swaibu Katare said that Main Objective is the commemoration of the World Blood Donor Day is, “To show appreciation to people who donate the precious gift of life through their donation of blood every year ;” and the theme of this year’s World Blood Donors Day is, “Every blood donor is a Hero”.
As Rwanda needs an average of 40,000 units of blood to meet patients’ demand, there is need to sensitize people especially civil servant to turn up for regular blood donation in order to maintain adequate supply of blood.
According to statistics from Rwanda Biomedical Centre, the blood transfusion division managed to distribute 35,118 units of blood from 37,811 units of blood it collected in 2011 down from 41,000 units it collected in 2010. He added that the proportion of discarded blood declined from 10.6 to 6.86 per cent.
The celebration also marks the birth of the late Karl Landsteiner who was born on June 14, 1868. Landsteiner was an Austrian biologist and physician remembered for having first distinguished the main blood groups in 1900, developing the modern system of blood group classification as well as his identification of the presence of agglutinins in the blood.
