MTN Ghana has organized its annual blood donation exercise at the Takoradi Market Circle, Shama and Tarkwa all in the Western Region to support the nation’s blood bank.
The exercise which is replicated nationwide is organized annually, in response to an appeal made by the National Blood bank to restock the bank some years ago to improve health care delivery.
Speaking to the B&FT during the exercise, Mr. Kennedy Kofi Ofosuhene, Corporate Services Advisor, Southern Ghana at MTN, explained that, human capital is very essential to the development of a country.
“Each year, thousands of lives are lost as a result of shortage of blood at the various blood banks across the country. It is an intervention that reiterates MTN’s commitment towards making the lives of Ghanaians a whole lot brighter.”
He noted that mass blood donation exercises have proven to be very successful in responding to very critical resource in health care delivery.
“As a corporate body that cares for the people in the communities we operate in, we decided to commit our resources to this worthy course. So, in 2011 we launched the annual blood donation exercise on Valentine’s Day and since it inception, we have collected more than 6,226 pints of blood to support the national blood bank and other regional hospitals throughout the country,” he added.
Mr. Ofosuhene said last year, MTN was able to generate 2551 pints of blood exceeding their target by 534 pints and that pints of blood collected were distributed to regional hospitals in all 10 regions.
The exercise, according to him, has been welcomed by the staff and the public across the country especially now that people have become more aware of the importance of donating blood, adding that due to that MTN was adjudged the highest corporate blood donor in 2013, second highest corporate blood donor in 2014 and one of the highest corporate donors in 2015.
According to him this year, MTN is expected to receive 2225 pints of blood on this nationwide exercise, as Takoradi, Shama and Tarkwa is expected to receive 600 pints of blood.
Mr. Simon Amoh, Regional Senior Manager for South West Business at MTN also explained that “our interest in this event is driven by the fact that we need a healthy society to be able to enjoy our services”.
He said MTN Foundation invest in Education, Health and Economic Empowerment; and for many years, we have consistently invested in these areas and we will continue to expand our frontiers.
