MTN Ghana, a telecommunication mobile network, has held blood donation exercises as part of efforts to restock the blood banks of health facilities in the Upper East and North East regions.
The annual event is part of the MTN Ghana Foundation project, dubbed: “Save a life” in response to a request of the Ghana Blood Bank for public support in restocking the bank.
The exercise secured about 250 pints of blood for healthcare facilities in the Upper East Region and 150 pints for the North East Region.
Mr Martin Yaw Kumobah, the MTN Team Lead, Upper East/ North East, said the Foundation had been rolling out the blood donation exercise for over a decade and believed the initiative had helped to save many lives.
He said the exercise was strategically held on Valentine’s Day, a day of love, to ensure that MTN Ghana demonstrated that love through blood donations.
“We know that there are a lot of people who visit our various hospitals requiring blood but are not able to get it, so we think that the best gift anyone could give to anybody on Valentine’s Day is to share your blood with the person who needs it,” he said.
Mr Kumobah said although the primary obligation of MTN Ghana was to provide mobile and network related services to people, the health and wellbeing of its customers were paramount, hence the Network would continue to invest in health-related activities.
He assured MTN’s customers and Ghanaians in general of the innovative and improved services for the year and urged them to keep trust in the company’s operations.
Madam Augustina Anafo, a Donor Nurse, Blood Bank, Upper East Regional Hospital, commended MTN Ghana for initiating the project to stock the blood banks to help save lives.
She said though the hospitals needed blood, only few people visited to donate voluntarily, which was not enough.
Pregnant women who visited the maternity wards and people involved in accidents were mostly those in dire need of blood and urged the public to donate willingly.
“It is also important to donate blood because apart from helping to save lives, it helps the donor to know his or her health status and also makes you active,” she added.
GNA