Students donate 122 blood units

 Some students from the University of Dodoma (Udom) over the weekend donated more than 122 units of safe blood to Dodoma Region’s Blood Transfusion Centre (BTC)

In an exclusive interview granted to The Citizen yesterday, the head of the centre, Dr Leah Kitundya, said the center was still facing an acute shortage of safe blood due to an increased number of residents in the designated capital.

“We deeply appreciate the support from the Udom students and those from St John’s University of Dodoma as they often donate blood to the center,” she said.

She explained that decision by the government to relocate its seat from Dar es Salaam to Dodoma had resulted in a rapid increase in the number of the region’s population and more demand for safe blood.

“Previously, we used to collect between 30 and 45 units of blood per day but now we only manage to collect between 15 and 20 units. You know since the government started relocating its seat to Dodoma, there has been a sharp increase in the region’s population, which means the demand for blood has also increased,” she told The Citizen.

She added that the Center was currently facing a myriad of challenges to run its campaigns for collecting safe blood from voluntary donors.

She added that the crucial center was also facing financial constraints to enable staff to travel around and collect blood from different interested donors as it was supposed to do.

“Currently we are collecting only 350 to 450 units of blood per month while the actual demand is more than 750 units.

So we are facing a big challenge,” she expressed.