By Yunus S Saliu
Pipeline Community Association, Saturday, organised a daylong blood donation camp, the donation event took place at the late Daddy Jobe’s Junction, Pipeline in Kanifing Municipal.
The Pipeline Community Association organised camp was supported by different partners including Prime Insurance, Universal Fitness; Qcell, Lala’s Cleaning Service; Trust Bank Limited; Pipeline Football Club; Takaful Insurance; Kanifing General Hospital who also monitored and conducted the blood donation.
A blood donation camp is an annual event organised by the association tagged ‘give a gift of life,’ and it started 10 years ago.
Elaborating on the blood drive camp background, Mr Dodou Njie, chairman of the Pipeline Community Association said the idea came up over ten years ago when the members of the association participating in the Nawettan Football decided to do something precious to the community that other people in the Gambia can benefit from.
Since the beginning of the donation camp ten years ago, he said they always organised the blood donation camp with the Kanifing General Hospital, “but was skipped in the last two years because of the Coronavirus pandemic, and it is always a successful drive each year.”
The association chairman thanked all their partners for believing and having trust in them to organize this gift of life event. He wholeheartedly expressed gratitude to Mr Mohammed Jah, proprietor of Qcell Company who he described as a good player that played Nawettan football with them at Pipeline in the 80s and still supports the team and association to date.
Saffiatou Habi, Deputy Head of Program Manager, National Blood Transmission Service, said Pipeline Community Association is one of the organizations to count on when it comes to blood donation in The Gambia.
She noted that the association always seeks support on its own without depending on the Ministry of Health to organize the annual blood donation camp and it always comes out successfully.
“They do this from their hearts, out of joy and love for humanity. I, therefore, thank you on behalf of the Ministry of Health and my department which is National Blood Transmission Service, Kanifing General Hospital, and the patients that have been receiving the blood donated by this association for the past years,” she appreciated the association.
However, she added that anyone giving out blood to others to live is not saving only the receiver’s life but his or her own life, too, “because if you give out blood it helps to enhance the production of your red blood cells, help you not to be anemic, it helps to balance your iron level which prevents heart attack, diseases, cardiovascular problem and it also helps you lose calories on top of that it gives you chance to know your health status.”
One of the Senior Doctors from the Kanifing General Hospital, Doctor Mansereh Njie also highlighted the importance of blood donation and said “it is the only way that we can save lives not only by becoming a cyber hero. Let’s emulate the Community of Pipeline Association, and donate more blood for the benefit of others to save their life from death in the hospital.”
Mr Samba Njie thanked everyone that participated in the blood donation and echoed that the association has been in this for a long time without looking for money, publicity, or any other reason but “to save a life.”
As the say goes, he said the life you save today could be yours hence nobody knows what could happen to anyone in a moment.
He said it is unfortunate that some people leaving outside the Greater Banjul Area come to the hospitals without any support when they need blood “is one of the main things that motivated some of us to give out more.”
He prayed for the continuity of the exercise while he thanked the team and extolled everyone behind the scene together with the partners.
Kalipha Sanneh, Deputy Head of Laboratory at the Kanifing General Hospital, Dr Daffeh, and other senior laboratory scientists from the National Public Health Laboratory Service made remarks at the Blood Donation Camp.