34% of maternal deaths in Kenya are a result of blood shortage. These deaths are preventable! Kenya's blood banks are beginning to run dry. The country relied for years almost entirely on U.S. aid but the funding was discontinued. We formed RedSplash to avail safe and free blood to all patients on time. We collected over 3,000 units of blood from 2019. But we lose 1 for every 2 donors recruited because they don't have the fare to commute. Paying $2-3 moving to the hospital is costly for donors.
Critical patients need donated blood for life-saving transfusions. Lack of available blood leads to unnecessary pain and avoidable deaths. Hospitals and the national health system do not maintain blood supply. Patients must mobilize friends or relatives. The National Blood Services estimates we have a shortage of over 200,000 blood units. Commuting to hospitals cost $2-3. The cost discourages willing blood donors living on a daily wage/unemployed from donating. We lose 33% of willing donors dai.
Having a car to move donors will increase our blood donors by about 33%. That is about 1,500 blood donors whose blood can save 4,500 lives. $2-3 can feed a family for a day in Kenya. Eliminating this cost for donors, will make it convenient for them to be regular donors. This means critical patients depending on blood transfusion can receive blood on time.
Use this proof of concept to spread to other regions in Kenya and save more lives. Scale awareness on the importance of voluntary blood donation to increase access to quality health care. With regular supply of blood, eventually, make the blood black market obsolete.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
