Blood Drive Initiative

----------------------------------------
Introducing Blood Drive Initiative
----------------------------------------

Blood Drive Initiative, founded in June 2005 in the University College Hospital Ibadan, is an organization with a desire to provide safe and sustainable blood supply to meet the rising need for blood and blood products in Nigeria.
Since the inception of this organization, we have organized, coordinated and participated in several donation exercises starting with the donation exercise preparatory to the open - heart surgery, which was performed in UCH in 2005.
We observe with dismay that the average, educated, healthy, well-to-do citizen of this country whose lifestyle is compatible with the criteria for a healthy donor does not donate blood unless compelled by circumstances. Thereby leaving such a delicate duty in the hands of touts and racketeers who donate blood for money without regard to the safety and quality of blood donated.
Nigeria, with a population of over 140million people, has huge potential to solve its own problem of shortage of blood supply and to export blood products if only we can tap into the vast wealth of human resources that abounds in the country.
The chasm that exists between need and opportunity is what Blood Drive Initiative seeks to bridge by encouraging the right kind of people to adopt a lifestyle of voluntary blood donation.

----------------------------------------
Aim & Objectives
----------------------------------------

Our aim in Blood Drive Initiative is to provide safe and sustainable blood supply through the recruitment and retaining of healthy, voluntary, non-remunerated donors (VNRDs) in accordance with WHO guidelines on blood donation.
Objectives

• To curb the spread of HIV/AIDS acquired through the transfusion of unsafe blood
  

• To phase out the menace of blood touts and racketeering
  

• To discourage the practise of replacement or relative donor
  

• To provide an equal chance at living for every patient who requests for blood
  

----------------------------------------
Modus Operandi
----------------------------------------

Our operation in Blood Drive Initiative (BDI) is divided into

• Campaign,
  
• Advocacy, and
  
• Care
  

Through the synergy of these activities, we encourage eligible people to donate blood voluntarily, call for more attention to be paid to transfusion science with respect to safety, management, and practise; and care for donors who have post-donation complaints and would-have-been donors who test positive to any of the Transfusion Transmissible Infections (TTIs).
Blood Drive Initiative maintains a database of donors who have consented to be reminded when due to observe this laudable exercise.

----------------------------------------
Campaign
----------------------------------------

If football players, movie stars and media giants are so highly celebrated in our society, should not those who give others a chance to live also be?
We are already working on a donor chart that will standardize and classify donors as well as attach benefits to each cadre attained. The benefit of this is that
It will motivate donors to continue donating, as each unit of blood donated will be seen as a step taken towards the next cadre.
It will create esprit de corps among donors who belong to the same cadre and further integrate us as a nation.
It will help us to rightly esteem donors based on attainment and not status.