Dwangwa Roundtable 69 members and residents in Nkhotakota District have donated blood to Malawi Blood Transfusion Service (MBTS) to boost blood stocks in the country.
The exercise follows reports of shortage of blood at MBTS which collected 63 000 units last year against the target of 120 000 units.
In an interview, Dwangwa Roundtable 69 vice-chairperson Chamber Nthakomwa said they led the exercise to support MBTS to collect blood to address the shortage of blood supply.
He said: “We saw that MBTS was in need of blood from various donors.
“So, we mobilised people to donate blood to save lives.”
Nthakomwa said his organisation will engage MBTS to jointly plan a similar activity by the end of the year.
In a separate interview, MBTS spokesperson Mphatso Bazale thanked Dwangwa Roundtable 69 for the exercise.
He said: “MBTS’s mandate is to ensure that it is collecting enough blood for all patients in need of it in Malawi.
“Road accidents victims, pregnant women, children with malaria and people with chronic illnesses need blood.”
One of the blood donors, Boniface Nkhwazi, who also brought four of his family members to donate blood, said he wanted to save lives of those in need of blood.
“If hospitals do not have blood, it means patients who need it will die and these might be people from all sectors of life and might include relatives,” he said.
Nkhwazi said he involved members of his family after noting that the demand for blood in hospitals was high.
In March this year, Roundtable Malawi in conjunction with MBTS organised a blood collection exercise in the country’s cities of Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu.
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