Posted by Haagen P. Cumlet
Between the RI convention in Birmingham, England, in June 2009 and the convention in Montreal, Canada, 2010, Rotary Club of Oke-Ona Egba in Abeokuta, District 9110, has established what may become a tradition for Rotary organized blood drives in Ogun State in South-Western Nigeria. Inspired by what he saw and heard at the symposium on voluntary blood donation hosted by Global Network for Blood Donation, A Rotarian Action Group in Birmingham, upon his return Dr. Hassan Adelakun  introduced blood drives as the major project for his term as club president. A year later at the Montreal convention,  this club president, who is a medical doctor, told the GNBD symposium that his club and local Rotaractors - assisted by The National Blood Transfusion Service of Ogun State - had managed to organize three blood drives collecting 294 pints of blood. In popular terms, this amount of donor blood is sufficient to improve or save the lives of about 780 people.

Presenting the result at the Montreal symposium of his blood drive project, Dr. Hassan Adelakun told the audience that one of the most important things now is to implement blood drives as part of the project agenda within Rotary Club of Oke-Ona Egba from one year to another. "No success without a successor", the president said. To assist the club president in years to come, the club has established a Blood Donation Drive Committee, which currently is chaired by Dr. Hassan Adelakun.

In addition to the blood drives in the state capital of Abeokuta, Rotary Club of Oke-Ona Egba has invited members of the other 15 Rotary Clubs in Ogun State and Rotaractors to register at a new website as blood donors. The website will provide facts and information on safety of blood donation and direct new blood donors to the nearest  centre where voluntary blood donation can be safely done.

The blood drives were held at two tertiary institutions' campuses in Abeokuta and in a Games' Village, Ijebu Ode (all in Ogun State, Nigeria), and were accompanied by awareness campaigns through live radio and TV coverage, newspapers, distribution of pamphlets, posters and music at the venues. 

At the universities, members of Rotaract or Club25, an international movement for blood donation among young people, are clearly motivated to give blood, and therefore of great help in organizing a Rotary blood drive locally, Dr. Hassan Adelakun pointed out.

Professionally, Hassan Adelakun is a member of the Blood Transfusion Committee at the Federal Medical Centre a (FMC) Abeokuta. His current workplace is at the Women Care Unit of the FMC.

According to Nigeria's Minister of Health, Christian Onyebuchi Chukwu, a medical professor, The Nigerian National Blood Transfusion Service only collects 25,000 units of blood yearly all over the country. Nigeria requires two million units of blood to serve the country's population of about 155 million people.

The Federal Republic of Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and the eighth most populous country in the world. The nation is divided into thirty-six states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. Ogun State itself has about four million people.

In his Montreal presentation, Dr. Hassan Adelakun quoted 2007 figures based on the previous ten-year period that showed a drastic decrease in both voluntary blood donation and replacement for medical purpose of blood by family members, whereas the commercial blood donation in Nigeria has seen a similar drastic increase.

The blood drives were organized in co-operation with the Federal Medical Centre Abeokuta, The Ministry of Health Ogun State, and The National Blood Transfusion Service in Ogun State. Financial assistance was rendered by Midland Galvanizing Company Nigeria Ltd, Abeokuta, an Indian company.

At the first of the three blood drives, organized by Rotary Club of Oke-Ona Egba, 133 pints of donor blood were collected, and this is more than any single drive by the National Blood Service in Ogun State has ever secured, Dr. Hassan Adelakun told the Montreal symposium.

For the Rotary-organized blood drives, The National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) in Ogun State has honored Rotary Club of Oke-Ona Egba with the Award of Excellence.

Dr. Hassan Adelakun flew to Montreal from Nigeria on an invitation from GNBD to be on the speakers' list at the Rotarian Action Group's symposium. The medical trained club president had entitled his presentation: "How to start a Rotary blood donor project in a culture without a tradition for voluntary blood donation."

Footnotes:

October 21, 2009, the first ever Rotary organized blood drive in Ogun State, secured 133 pints. The blood was handed over to the Federal Medical Centre Abeokuta for the benefit of emergency patients and accident victims. The drive took place at the campus of Moshood Abiola Polytechnics.

May 7, 2010, two blood drives were held, respectively at the campus of the University of Agriculture and the Gateway Games' Village, Ijebu-Ode. All in all, 161 pints of donor blood were collected and handed over to the State and General Hospitals in Ogun State.

Contact: Dr. Hassan Adelakun, e-mail adelakus@hotmail.com

Comments regarding this article may be mailed to editor@ourblooddrive.org

PowerPoint presentation: To see the Dr. Hassan Adelakun's PowerPoint presentation about his club's achievements, click here or go to DOWNLOADS.

Pictures from the blood drives in Abeokuta can bee seen under the journal PHOTOS.

A website of  Rotary Club of Oke-Ona Egba can be found by clicking here .

The first GNBD article   about the first Rotary blood drive in Ogon State was posted at this website in October 2009.  Go to the article "The first Rotary blood drive in Abeokuta."