Campaigners donate blood to save lives in Uganda

Ugandan campaigners have started donating blood to Nakasero, the country’s blood bank, in a desperate attempt to stop women and children dying during childbirth.

The move is part of a campaign which has seen civil society organizations demonstrate on the streets of Kampala, chanting slogans including ‘Voices for health, save mothers and children now, It is their right too’, ‘One unit of blood may be lives of up to three infants and ‘Not another needless death’ to highlight themes of the campaign.

Referring to attempts to bring the issue before Uganda’s Constitutional Court, which has twice been thwarted by the judiciary, International HIV/AIDS Alliance’s Country Director Leonard Okello said: “These failures prepare us for the better. Why was the case adjourned? This is the second time when we are going to court and there’s no response.”

He added: “In the last two weeks we received a case in Gulu for the child who bleed to death, a case in Lira for a woman who bled to death. In Mityana recently, a week ago, another woman died because there was no blood. This is a serious matter. We recently learnt from the blood bank that there was enough blood in the country but the same bank doesn’t seem to have enough blood in the health centers and hospitals that require blood for the women who are bleeding to death.

“Our hope is that the court will take this case very seriously and give just results because right to life is a provision to the constitution of Uganda and was a right of these women who are gone, not by killing anybody but by bringing life. As a response, we have decided to donate blood. The Red Cross society has given us facilities. In the whole country today, it is our hope that the blood we are contributing will be given to hospitals that are lacking blood and if our mothers die they will die of another reason but not blood.”

Aidah Nankanja,a 75-year-old activists, says: “Joining hands together will put pressure on the government to listen to the various voices calling for change. We are their voters, we voted them in and are holding them accountable, we are soliciting over 10,000 signatures, to show the government that we are hurt.”

Lilian Mworeko, of International Community of Women living with HIV/AIDS, said that these diseases are preventable: “Why should we die in labor, obstetric labor, and all those causes of maternal death? Why should we wait for death to come then take the government to court? The government should put measures to ensure that women don’t die. They should not hold this up because they are many more dying due to child delivering.

“We challenge whatever is happening, 16 women [who die everyday during childbirth in Uganda] is more than a minibus, we need preventive measures. HIV pregnant women also have challenges, and we have to put an end to the needless death of women. Many Ugandans have died due to a lack of blood in health centers and hospitals. Most shocking is a new born child who bled to death in an incubator because there was no health worker during the night.

“Maternal death remained high for the past years and there was no response but just recently two pregnant women died while giving birth due to a lack of blood in hospitals. This sparked off the beginning of this campaign against maternal death to put pressure on the government.”