South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
Oyet Patrick Charles, President of UJOSS, left and his colleague donating blood at NBTS in Juba on Wednesday.
By Awan Achiek
The Union of Journalists of South Sudan (UJOSS) on Wednesday held a one-day blood donation initiative where 17 journalists donated blood to the National Blood Transfusion Service in Juba.
The journalists who donated 17 pints of blood included 6 females and 11 males.
Oyet Patrick Charles, President of UJOSS urged journalists to voluntarily donate blood to save lives of South Sudanese with serious health challenges.
“It is no longer enough for us to just report that there is a lack of blood, people need blood and blood is not there. There are things that we can do which do not really affect our profession,” Oyet said.
He said that donating blood doesn’t affect journalism ethics, adding that journalists could also next time participate in tree planting.
“It is important that we become part of the society. We need to not only criticize things, report about things, but things that we can do as human beings who live in this society,” Oyet said.
For his part, Dr. Lul Lojok Deng, Director General of the Public Health Laboratory, said the country needs 120,000 pints of blood to save lives in the event of emergencies.
“Our population in South Sudan is estimated to be 12 million, and we need 120,000 of the blood,” he said.
Deng said the blood could be used to save patients with injuries from accidents, pregnant women, and children.
He said the survey they conducted in 2020, showed that only 23 percent of nationals donated blood while 77 percent of foreigners donated blood.
Joseph Lukak Charles, Head of the South Sudan Red Cross Branch in Juba, said they need more people to donate blood since they often have shortages in the face of increasing demand.
“As we speak today, we are almost around 6,000 voluntary donors, it may sound like a big achievement, but this is nothing,” Lukak said.
“If you compare with other countries, people are collecting thousands of units per year. But in this country we are not even reaching 5,000 per year. We are very, very far behind,” he added.
David A. Nicholas, Coordinator of Sustainable Agency for Empowerment (SAFE) encouraged more people to donate blood.
“Every time you go to the hospital, you realize that the blood we hear that has been donated is not enough,” he said.
