Blood Donation

Since 2020, 470 donors have been mobilised in Freetown for the country’s only maternity referral hospital.

Donating blood is very important to save lives. Had it not been a blood bank in Koidu government hospital I would have lost my wife and child during operation.

Myths and cultural beliefs in Sierra Leone about blood donation mean that many women and children die needlessly because of a shortage of donated blood. In response the LNP team has worked closely with community champions and hospital blood banks in Freetown and Kono to break down these barriers and recruit blood donors – empowering people to own both the problems and the solutions to the issues which most affect their communities.

Working in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, the team has orchestrated many donation sessions, resulting in the collection of hundreds of units of life-saving blood. Gi4SaveLife, a pilot in the rural Kono site funded by the Economic and Social Research Council in 2023 saw 376 donors recruited and 539 units donated in an 8-month period.

You don't have to be a doctor

Rick's story

When I was a student nurse, one of my patients died because there was no blood in the blood bank which would have saved his life. I decided that day that I would start to donate and have since donated 24 times. However, I knew that my efforts alone would not solve the problem so I started to talking to my friends and other young people in my community.

Things have just grown from there! My vision is that no-one in Sierra Leone should die from a lack of blood, and the only way that is going to happen is by people like us donating, as volunteers, motivated by love for life.

You don’t have to be a doctor to save a life, just give blood!

units donated by the Lifeline community blood donation team since 2015