The blood donation exercise dubbed Save a Life Blood Dona­tion Campaign was launched in 2011 by the MTN Ghana Founda­tion as part of its corporate social responsibility to help stock the National Blood Bank with blood.

The exercise was joined by the staff of MTN Ghana and trade partners who donated blood at the programme done simultaneously in all the MTN Ghana offices across the 16 regions of the country.

It was done with support from the 37 Military Hospital, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital and the Greater Accra Regional Hospital.

In her remarks before the exer­cise, the Manager of Sustainability and Social Impact of MTN Ghana Foundation, Mrs Rhoderlyn En­stua-Mensah, said the exercise was started 13 years ago by the MTN Ghana Foundation to help stock the National Blood Bank with blood.

She said since the exercise started in 2011, the MTN Ghana Foundation had collected 20,000 pints of blood for the National Blood Bank.

Mrs Enstua-Mensah said there was a break in the exercise in 2020 due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the last exercise in 2020, Mrs Enstua-Mensah stated that 6036 pints of blood were collected.

The Manager in charge of Sus­tainability said the MTN Ghana Foundation would continue to organise the exercise every year to collect blood and drive the campaign on voluntary blood donation.

She said voluntary blood dona­tion was one of the surest ways to restock the National Blood Bank with blood.

The Chief Executive Officer of the National Blood Service, Dr Shirley Owusu-Ofori, said adequate blood at the National Blood Bank would help to save the lives of anaemic children, pregnant women who need blood during delivery and accident victims who needed blood.

She indicated that per the World Health Organisation standard, if about 320, 000 people voluntarily (one per of the population) do­nated blood twice in a year, there would be enough blood at the National Blood Bank.

The CEO of the NBS said about 150,000 people voluntarily donated blood to help stock the National Blood Bank, representing less than half of the population.

She encouraged the public to voluntarily donate blood to stock the National Blood Bank, stressing that donating blood had no side effects and rather helped the body to build new cells.

She commended MTN Ghana Foundation and its partners for continuously organising blood donation exercise to collect blood for the National Blood Bank.