Amie Jarjue, fondly called Gambia’s Mother Theresa, through her Join Hands 2 Save A Baby, launched Gambia’s first Maternal Blood Bank Project to complement government’s efforts in the fight against preventable deaths of mothers and babies.
Fatoumatta Bah-Barrow, the First Lady of The Gambia, mayors Talib Bensouda and Rohey Malick Lowe all graced the colourful launching to show their support and solidarity.
The project aims to provide blood across the country in an attempt to empower the country’s hospitals and health professionals in their efforts to minimise maternal deaths.
The project will be established across the 6 regions of the country and will target pregnant women, new mothers and babies.
In her launching remarks, the First Lady said it is a collective responsibility to help in addressing the issue of maternal deaths.
“We are out to support each other to end the maternal deaths in the country. I want to call on women to consistently work together to improve their delivery and motherhood experience. I want to assure the initiators of my office’s continued support,” she said.
The Mayor of Banjul Rohey Malick Lowe, said fighting maternal mortality is achievable in The Gambia “if all hands are put together in the spirit of nationalism”.
“We need to come together and work as a team. I will do as much as possible to stand by Amie’s side to see the success of the Gambia Maternal Blood Bank Project as we are in this cause together,” Mayor Lowe said.
She encouraged the people of Banjul to donate blood to ease the continuous struggle for blood in the country.
Safie Abia, deputy programme manager at the National Blood Transfusion Service, said the project will help save mothers, daughters, wives and children.
“It has the potential of changing the lives of Gambian women and children completely. It would bring a change in the narrative of the National Blood Transfusion Service and will save a lot of lives. We should all make it a responsibility to save pregnant mothers, children and wives,” he said, adding that people especially youths should come forward to donate blood.
The secretary, Join Hands Save A Baby, Abdoulie Jarjue, said the project will also focus on raising awareness on how people could save lives through donating their blood.
“The project essentially seeks to provide a safe environment for the health professionals to be supported and be able to do their work. We want to make lives better for Gambian women and babies,” he said.
He called on all to join hands to put an end to maternal mortality in the country.
The founder of Join Hands Save A Baby and chief initiator of the Maternal Blood Bank Project, Amie Jarjue, said the recent surge in maternal mortality in the country motivated her to initiate the blood bank project.
She called upon all citizens to join hands in the campaign to create a sustainable system to ensure continued supply and availability of safe blood transfusion products and services for use in emergency lifesaving situations across all maternity units in the country.
