Namibia Joins African Nations Partnering With Facebook On Blood Donation

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Namibia has joined the list of African nations that are partnering with Facebook to boost blood donation in their respective countries.

The new partnership between the South African nation and Facebook which was launched today in Windhoek, the Namibian capital was disclosed in a statement distributed by APO Group on behalf of Facebook

The feature was also launched in Chad, Guinea and Mali today, making it available in 12 countries across Africa. Meanwhile, it is already available in Senegal, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Niger, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

Since launching in 2017 more than 70 million people have signed up to be blood donors on Facebook through partnerships with blood donation centres around the world.

According to the statement, Facebook in partnership with the Namibian Blood Transfusion Service (NamBTS), Ministry of Health and Social Services (MOHSS) has launched it to encouraging people to donate blood.

With the launch of the initiative, people who are between the ages of 18 – 65 in Namibia can sign up to be a blood donor on Facebook by going to Blood Donations in the About section of their profile, or access the assigned link for it.

In addition, people will be able to see requests and opportunities to donate on Blood Donations on Facebook on their mobile devices from nearby donation sites.

This initiative comes at a crucial time due to the impact of the pandemic, resulting in countries starting to see a significant drop in blood donations as people stay home to prevent the spread of COVID-19, despite the World Health Organization (WHO) saying it is still safe to donate blood.

Lending credence to this assertion, Public Policy Director Facebook Africa, Kojo Boakye said COVID-19 has changed how and where people can give blood, causing countries around the world to experience shortages of voluntary blood donations at this critical time.

“In keeping with our Mission, we recognized the role Facebook can play in connecting people that want to donate blood with opportunities to do so. The partnership with the NamBTS and Ministry of Health and Social Services is such an important one. We strongly believe it will enable Namibians to make a positive impact to the blood donation ecosystem in the country”, he said.

Speaking in a similar vein, the Manager Donor Recruitment and PR for NamBTS, Zita Tobin, noted that the partnership with Facebook will go a long way in raising the bar in their blood donation activities.

“We are truly excited by the partnership with Facebook as the tool will assist us bolster our blood collections during the pandemic and beyond, as only 1 percent of the population donate blood”, he stressed.