To mark World Blood Donor Day on 14 June 2017, Ecobank Foundation and Ecobank Ghana are creating awareness of the importance of donating blood to save lives.
To mark World Blood Donor Day on 14 June 2017, Ecobank Foundation and Ecobank Ghana are creating awareness of the importance of donating blood to save lives.
The Chief Executive Officer of Ecobank Foundation, Ms. Julie Essiam and the Managing Director of Ecobank Ghana, Mr Dan Sackey encouraged Ghanaians to make blood donations a habit to ensure robust supplies to blood banks in Ghana.
Blood transfusions save lives and improve health, but many patients requiring a transfusion do not have timely access to safe blood.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), based on a sample of 1,000 people, the blood donation rate per 1000 is 32.1 donations in high-income countries, 14.9 donations in upper-middle-income countries, 7.8 donations in lower-middle-income countries and 4.6 donations in low-income countries.
The WHO maintains that providing safe and adequate blood should be an integral part of every country’s national healthcare policy and infrastructure.
Earlier this year, employees of Ecobank Ghana made a donation of over 500 pints of blood to the National Blood Bank through a company blood donation exercise.