Whisper has a continuous partnership with Uganda Blood Transfusion Service, funding one of their full time lab technicians and providing any assistance needed for better blood donation sessions, safe blood processing and screening. No more lack of safe blood at our hospital. Now every child and pregnant mother can be confident that safe blood will always be in stock in Whisper's blood fridge (as well as in other regional hospitals) and no child coming to Whisper will die for lack of blood!
Many children that Whisper sees require blood transfusions, but the Ugandan medical system often runs short of blood. In January 2017, the Red Cross and other US NGOs ended their annual donation of around 3 billion Ugandan shillings to the Uganda Blood Transfusion Service (UBTS) and this severely affected their budget.
Whisper agreed to sponsor and closely supervise and monitor blood drives every day in Busoga region together with UBTS, by offering a contract to several of its workers, although nowadays we just fund one lab technician. As well as sponsoring blood collection, Whisper pays for the collected blood to be screened at the only permitted laboratory in Uganda, the Nakasero blood bank, around 90 km away from our base in Jinja. This ensures that blood is always available at our hospital.
Whisper now has a much bigger impact on saving children's and adults' lives. Our children's hospital will always have safe blood day and night; this will allow us to save many lives, because many of the children need immediate transfusions on arrival. Other hospitals will also benefit from the blood that we collect. We hope to establish our own Whisper blood bank in the future, and this is a step in the right direction!
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