This amazing 6 month project will allow the redundant workers at the Jinja branch of the Uganda Blood Transfusion Service to continue organising blood donation sessions, safe blood processing and screening. No more lack of safe blood at our hospital. Now every child can be confident that safe blood will always be in stock in Whisper's blood fridge and no child coming to Whisper will die for lack of blood!
The Ugandan medical system often runs short of blood. This year, 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. At the Jinja Blood Bank, the core workers and many employees who were known to Whisper personally were terminated 3 months ago. The blood bank was still operating, but at a low level because the staff were not being paid.
Whisper agreed to sponsor and closely supervise and monitor blood drives every day in Busoga region together with UBTS, by offering a contract to its workers: 3 lab technicians, one nurse and a driver/mobiliser. 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 will now have 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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