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U.S. Ambassador donates blood

Saturday, 19 July 2008

By Yelibenwork Ayele The U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia, Donald Yamamoto, donated one unit of blood (450 ml) on Wednesday to the Ethiopian Red Cross Society's blood bank. About one thousand officials of the embassy followed his example. he Ambassador told The Reporter that he wanted to set an example to people in Ethiopia to donate blood to the blood bank which is in short supply throughout the year. Arega Hussien, who works in the embassy's information section, was donating blood the same day. He said that he was doing it for the fifth time and was happy because he knew that with every unit of blood he donated, the lives of three people would be saved. The Ethiopian Red Cross society has twelve blood banks, which are few compared to the need for blood supply in the country. Annually, the blood bank needs over 80,000 units of blood, but it gets less than 50 percent of that. The main reason people hesitate to donate blood is that they fear it will make them vulnerable to diseases. The truth is, however, that blood regenerates itself in 48 hours and a strong, healthy person can donate a unit of blood every three  months. Besides, voluntarism has not been developed and therefore people donate only to family members or a relative who is in an emergency. The number and distribution of hospitals is another hurdle. If units of blood are collected from volunteers in Afar and there is no hospital there, the blood will be of no use. It is better to bring the donor to Addis Ababa and draw his blood there, explained a member of the Red Cross's staff. Ambassador Yamamoto said that the embassy had already started working on its project of building eleven blood banks for the Ministry of Health. He said that awareness creation should be done extensively to encourage voluntary blood donation, as the country has the highest traffic accident and so many women die of birth complications.

 

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