Meeting Sponsor for March 11, 2013

Safe Blood Africa
No child should die because safe blood is unavailable
By Leslie Botos, Vice President, Public Affairs

Nigeria is the most populous country on the African continent and the seventh most populous country in the world. One in four Africans is Nigerian. And, every day in Nigeria, people who are sick often die because safe blood is not available.

BloodSource believes that no man, woman or child should die for lack of access to a safe and plentiful blood supply. Working together with The Safe Blood Africa Project – an initiative started by the Rotary Club of Carmel Valley – BloodSource, along with Stanford Blood Center, Northern California Community Blood Bank (Eureka) and Blood Bank of the Redwoods (Santa Rosa) are helping to bring safe blood programs to Nigeria.

This U.S. blood banking team will educate Nigerian professionals about the importance of voluntary blood donations as well as the safest ways possible to collect, test, process and transfuse blood. Working together with Rotary Clubs across the United States and in Nigeria, as well as with funding sources that can support this effort, the goal is to create sustainable blood donor and transfusion medicine programs in Nigeria.