Telecoms giant, MTN Ghana through its flagship programme, the MTN Ghana Foundation, has conducted a national blood donation exercise to collect 3500 pints of blood to stock blood banks across the nation.
According to the company, this is part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to show love to the citizenry, as part of its celebration of Valentine’s Day.
The MTN Ghana Foundation’s exercise dubbed, “Save-a-Life Campaign” was also part of plans to revive lives through encouraging and motivating staff, stakeholders and the public to voluntarily donate blood.
The Executive Secretary of the MTN Ghana Foundation, Robert Kuzoe said the lack of access to safe blood was responsible for the deaths of hundreds and thousands of childbearing women each year as evidence in the World Health Organization (WHO) report.
The WHO, he said, estimates that one to three per cent of the population needed to become blood donors.
The campaign was supported by the National Blood Service, the 37 Military Hospital, and the Greater Accra Regional Hospital.
According to the National Blood Service, the population requires 270,000 units of blood, however, only 160,000 units are collected, which leaves a deficit of 40 per cent. Mr Kuzoe said the MTN, therefore, found it necessary to contribute its quota to saving lives through the exercise.
Thus since 2011, it has contributed to 9500 pints of blood.
In response to JoyBusiness on what the exercise meant to the company’s market share, Mr Kuzoe said, “It is not really about increasing our market share; we are very glad to have another opportunity to show our customers and all Ghanaians that we are a caring company,”
He added, “We believe that the availability of safe blood is critical in health administration and we are happy to assist.”
The exercise was conducted in the Greater Accra, Ashanti, Volta, Eastern, Central, Western, Brong Ahafo, Northern, Upper East, and West Regions at places earmarked as bleeding centres.
He announced that dedicating 2019 as a “Year of the Customer”, MTN Ghana had planned several health projects to improve healthcare delivery to its customers.
The campaign was supported by the National Blood Service, the 37 Military Hospital, and the Greater Accra Regional Hospital.
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