Blood drives and a blood donor organization

When incoming club president Dr. Hassan Adelakun of Rotary Club of Oke-Ona Egba, District 9110, returned home from the Rotary International Convention in Birmingham, he carried with him the conviction that his year as president, 2009-10, should mark the beginning of Rotary organized blood drivesin his club's hometown, Abeokuta,and as well as the founding of a voluntary blood donor organization in the Nigerian State of Ogun. At the RI Convention, Hassan Adelakun became inspired by the GNBD exhibition booth and the breakout sessions on non-remunerated blood donation.  (Updated Sept. 26)

Back home in Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun State, within a few weeks the new Club president, Hassan Adelakun,  had established a Committee on Blood Donation Drive, chaired by himself.

"The plan is to have two or three blood drives during the current Rotary year, the first one will be held on October 21,and by January-March of 2010 we will form  a voluntary blood donor organization," the club president tells GNBD.The bylaws for the new blood donor organization are  inspired by the bylaws of the Danish national blood donor association, Blood Donors in Denmark (BID).

Dr. Hassan Adelakun is aware of the fact that local culture and traditions might be obstacles on the way: "Because of the level of poverty and ignorance our people are not yet use to free blood donation," he points out. 

In order to boost the public awareness of voluntary blood donation and its benefits for the community, the Rotary club president plans to have his own 10th blood donation shown live on the state television station a week before the first Rotary blood drive in Abeokuta. "I also hope my wife will make her first donation live on the same tv station," he says.

The two other Rotary clubs in the Ogun state capital have been invited to participate in the blood drives as well as the Rotaract clubs at the various institutions of higher learning in Abeokuta.

The Oke-Ona Egba Rotary Club has reached out to the Ogun State Office of the National Blood Transfusion Services in Abeokuta and two medical institutions: the Federal Medical Centre, which is a tertiary hospital and serves as a federal teaching hospital in Ogun State, and the State owned General Hospital, Ijaye, Abeokuta, for cooperation with regard to local blood drives organized by Rotary.

But the master-plan goes much further: "We will also contact other known voluntary blood donor organisations in Nigeria so as to allow us to form a national blood donor federation," the president of Rotary Club of Oke-Ona Egba, Dr. Hassan Adelakun tells GNBD.

He has already been approached by one of the other blood donation clubs in Nigeria, Blood drive initiative, "and we are sure to work together for the formation of the national body," Hassan Adelakun says.

At the same time, GNBD has learned that the International Federation of Blood Donor Organizations, FIODS - inspired by the Rotary engagement in Ogun State - now will look into the possibility of uniting a number of regional blood donor societies in Nigeria in a national blood donor federation. An application from one local blood donor group was received at FIODS prior to the RI Convention.

Dr. Hassan Adelakun himself is employed at the Federal Medical Centre's department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology in Abeokuta. He is a member of his hospital's Blood Transfusion Committee, and he serves as an Assistant General Secretary for the OgunState branch of the Nigerian Medical Association.

With an estimated population of 155 million people, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa. Ogun State is one of the thirty-six states in Nigeria. The state capital, Abeokuta, is located about 100 kilometers (63 miles) north-west of the nation's major city, Lagos, and has a population of about three million people.

The State capital has two Federal Health institutions, the Neuropsychiatric Hospital which is the WHO collaborating centre for behavioural disorders and neurological diseases, and the Federal Medical Centre. In addition, the city's population has at its disposal three general hospitals, one mission hospital, six community hospitals/ basic health centres and many private health institutions.

Nigeriais divided into three Rotary Districts. District 9110 encompasses Ogan State and neighboring Lagos State.Currently, the district has 84 clubs and the highest concentration of Rotarians in Nigeria: about 1950 members. 14 of the clubs are located in Ogun State. Oke-Ona Egba Rotary Club was chartered in 1994.

Rotary is not an unfamiliar entity within the Nigerian health services. Since 2004, the Californian based Safe Blood Africa Project (SBA) has provided blood storage refrigerators and generators to a number of publicly owned community hospitals in Nigeria. In addition, the project group, founded by Carmel Valley Rotary Club in California, District 5230, is considering expanding its activity in Nigeria to encompass blood drives, organized by local Rotary clubs.

Editor's note:

Club President Dr. Hassan Adelakun can be contacted at the mail address:adelakus@hotmail.com

Go to the Photo Journals for pictures with regard to this article.

Comments regarding this article to:editor@ourblooddrive.org.

Click here to view the bylaws of the Danish national blood donor association which are use as a model for the bylaws of a blood donor organization in Ogun State

See also the article Safe Blood Africa Projekt, postet at this website August 10, 2008.