The National Blood Services Zimbabwe (NBSZ) has joined forces with the Shincheonji Volunteers, an arm of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus and a young people’s Youth led Youth Vibes Afrika for a blood drive initiative which was hosted on Saturday at Magamba Hall in Warren Park 1.
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The partnership targeted to encourage people from the church, young people community and other members of the society towards donating blood to ensure that the national blood banks have enough blood.
The Shicheonji Volunteers (SCJ) Ministry of Services and Transport Neil Maretekwa has vowed their commitment to participating in initiatives that are meant to benefit the public while encouraging the church to partner with national health bodies and to actively participate in health related programmes such as blood donations.
“It is not only about preaching the word of God but the church can also participate in some programmes that are meant to save lives. Lives can also be saved both spiritually and physically, so I am advising all churches and believers to partner and donate blood through such initiatives.
“There are some reports that blood donations are linked to some rituals, I want to clarify that there are no rituals attached to blood donations as other reports say but everything that is done here in Zimbabwe by these official institutions is safe for the citizenry, let us not be corrupted by social media or falsehoods, let us save lives as a church by encouraging our members to donate blood,” said Maretekwa
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The NBSZ Blood Donor Coordinators Team Leader Tichaona Saira revealed that the mobile blood drive initiatives were meant to reach more blood donors in communities with the aim of ensuring sufficiency in national blood reservoirs since some donors were facing transport problems to reach their offices.
“We are targeting to collect 40 units and above of blood today and we are happy that people are coming to donate blood here in Warren Park. We partnered with the church and youth organisations because we know that they work in the community and they know the community better.
“We are getting into communities so that we give everyone a chance to donate blood because some may not have transport money to come physically to our offices for donations. We have the free blood initiative which was introduced by the government in 2018 in all our government and council health institutions which means every citizen has a privilege to be a beneficiary to that so we are collecting blood so that we can satisfy every citizen who is need of blood,” said Saira
The Youth Vybes Afrika Founder and Chief Executive Officer Ruvarashe Miti said “As young people of Zimbabwe we should be the champions of saving lives. Accidents are causing many injuries in the country and this means that the demand of blood increases so when we donate blood in our numbers it means that our national blood banks will have adequate blood hence the cost of buying blood will fall,” She said
Meanwhile one of the blood donors Brave said “Donating blood is very easy,not painful at all and this is my first time to donate blood. I decided to donate blood because I know that there is life in sharing and most importantly blood is life. I want to encourage others to donate blood,” said Brave
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The demand for blood increases especially during holidays such as Christmas, New Year, Easter and Heroes when many accidents are reported and some of the cases that cause people to need more blood include chronic diseases and labour, when mothers lose blood while giving birth.
