In his inaugural address during the official launch of the 2016 blood donation exercise in Accra, the Director of Communications, Melcom Group Mr Godwin Avenorgbor, noted that the organisation of the event was part of the Group’s corporate social responsibility to help stock the National Blood Bank in order to save lives.
According to him, records from the National Road Safety Commission shows that from January to November last year, 1,474 people lost their lives in road crashes involving 15,505 vehicles. As 8,448 suffered various degrees of injuries.
“The Police Motor Traffic and Transport Department also recorded that in the 2nd quarter of 2015 alone there were 554 pedestrian knock downs, 447died and 2,381 injured in road accident”, he hinted .
More so, an estimation shows that Ghana as a country loses USD 230 Million annually as a result of road crashes leaving 1,600 people dead with 23% of all pedestrian fatalities being children below age 16.
“The road accident history of our country suggests that we not doing well as a nation in road safety and the saving of lives of accident victims particularly those who require blood transfusion as a necessity”, he noted.
According to him, Melcom has organised blood donation exercises for many years. This he said, since 2013, they transformed from single centre blood donation to a Nationwide campaign with the following objectives:
– To make known the importance of Blood Donation as a life saving opportunity.
– To create a common platform in all regions of Ghana for the mobilisation of donors.
– To offer Community Service in all areas of our shopping centres for the health benefit of our patrons and all citizens as whole.
And, to lead the Campaign for achieving efficiency in Blood Donation Campaigns for the maximum benefit of National Health Delivery System.
“In that connection , I am happy to report: In 2013, we achieved 435 Pints of Blood in one day.
In 2014 we achieved 639 Pints of Blood in one day. Year 2015 we achieved 824 Pints in one day”, he disclosed.
The Communications Director entreated the general public to endeavour to donate more blood to help save lives in the country .The exercise was held simultaneously at the Group’s shops across the country.
By: Isaac Kofi Dzokpo/ NewsGhana.com.Gh
