By Kimuri Mwangi
The cooperative movement in the country has included blood donation as part of the activities leading to the celebration of international cooperative day.
The Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Co-operatives and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) Patrick Kilemi said the target is to donate 2000 pints of blood to the national blood reserve through the Kenya Tissue and Transplant Authority (KTTA).
Macloud Malonza the chairman of Cooperative Alliance of Kenya (CAK) said donating blood to KTTA is a response to President William Ruto call to assist in the delivery of Universal Health Care and part of social responsibility to the community.
At the Kencom Stage in Nairobi, the blood donation drive was going on well with the targets being met. “We are here courtesy of the Cooperative movement in Kenya who have decided to donate blood during their celebration and therefore we are here with them and so far, we’ve collected more than a hundred units. I believe we shall be able to have collected 300 or more units by the end of the three days. This is a nice annual event being organized by the same group and we are so grateful to them and their people because they’ve been of much help to us and to patients who are in need of blood in our hospitals,” said Festus Koech the Nairobi Regional Manager, Kenya Tissue & Transplant Authority.
Koech says they distribute the donated blood to all hospitals in Kenya both public and faith-based and sometimes to the military hospitals. He urged other organizations to emulate the cooperative movement whenever they are celebrating as the gesture saves a lot of lives.
Isaac Kiprop a council member at Ushirika Council which coordinates the activities of the International Cooperative Day Celebrations thanked all who had turned up to donate blood since it was voluntary and said the team carrying out the exercise was doing a tremendous job.
Alpha a university student said that he decided to donate blood because he knows there are people who need it outside there. He added that he might need blood too at one time and would love also to be helped the same way he was doing. Mitchelle Mwende from Machakos said she decided to donate blood since she got it for free and it was only human to give to those who need it.
According to data from the Ministry of Health, the country’s blood reserve stands at 394, 000 pints of blood which is below the national target of more than 500,000 pints. The World Health Organisation (WHO) expects each country to have one per cent of blood pints of the country’s population.
