Your blood will save a life

CCBRT employee Angela giving blood on Thursday, December 15. Photo: CCBRT

If you’re part of any online social groups in Dar, you’ve no doubt seen messages reading, “urgent, blood needed.”

Every month, Tanzania requires an average of 5,000 units of blood per month but only 3,500 units of blood are collected (blood can only be stored for 35 days.)

“Our message this season to Dar es Salaam residents is to donate blood in order to save the lives of mothers and children. Blood is life, and it is not available in any other way except for being donated by another human being,” says Dr Brenda D’Mello, Technical Advisor to CCBRT’s Maternal and Newborn Healthcare Capacity Building Programme.

Most of the blood will go to save women in childbirth — 432 women per every 100,000 live births die each year in childbirth, mostly due to acute blood loss.

For the next three days (between December 15-17) the National Blood Transfusion Services (NBTS) is holding a blood drive at CCBRT’s Maternity & Newborn Hospital – currently under construction – which will act as a high-risk referral hospital for mothers and babies within the current Dar es Salaam Region referral system upon its opening in 2018.

Access to the blood drive will be via CCBRT’s ‘gate 2’ on Kimweri Avenue; doors are open from 08:00 – 17:00.

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Dar Post
Dar Post is an online community for Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. We provide you with timely and relevant community information.