The Sunday Mail
Tanyaradzwa Kutaura
The National Blood Service Zimbabwe (NBSZ) has intensified efforts to educate rural communities to actively participate in blood donation.
Part of the plan is to demystify beliefs among people in rural areas that blood donation cannot be done to benefit a person other than their relatives.
NBSZ public affairs manager Ms Esther Massundah said the organisation had launched a programme modelled to reach rural communities.
“What we have done in 2018 is that we are going to be doing a lot of community engagement in terms of giving the rural communities more information, in terms of the blood programme and also identifying blood donors within those communities and recipients within those communities so that they can then complete the full story,” she said.
“If we do not have the recipient and the donor sharing their experiences with the people within the community then we would not be able to penetrate into such communities,” she said.
“We are going to be working with community based organisations which will assist us in disseminating information in the three main languages – English, Shona and Ndebele.
“We also want the community to know that the user fees of blood have come down to $50 in Government hospitals.”
The number of blood donors in rural areas is relatively low due to lack of education on the process of blood donation.
Ms Massundah applauded the Ministry of Health and Child Care for availing a subsidy to help NBSZ penetrate rural communities.
