Africa is the first habitat of man but it is the last to be made truly habitable. The crisis of habitability in recent history ranges from problems of tropical diseases to difficulties in physical communications and transportation, and from political instability in black Africa to the complexities of white-dominated southern Africa. The resulting exodus of refugees from both black tyranny and white racism is part of the crisis of ‘living conditions’ in a political sense. African societies are not the closest to the Western culture but have been experiencing the most rapid pace of westernization in this century. Historically, African Americans have a general mistrust for the health care system that has contributed to significant health disparities. In a society with such racism, doctors find it difficult to find blood for patients as the whites and the darks may refuse to receive blood from the opposite color.
An offline blood bank in Africa, named The Living Blood Bank claims to “give recipients the opportunity to thank donors who saved their life-face to face”. This is not Africa actually needs. They require a system of blood donation in which the donors and the recipients are fairly anonymous. This would avoid any racial conflict and blood banking can be carried out without any hindrance.
The Safe Blood for Africa Foundation provides Africa with one such online facility. Its vision is to promote the health renewal of Africa through increased access to an adequate supply of safe blood. Its mission is described as being able to facilitate capacity building of Blood Services in Africa to deliver adequate, accessible and affordable safe blood through appropriate best practices. SBFA adheres to the guidelines, recommendations and ethical principles of the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRCRCS) and the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT). The countries which suffer from the highest burden of HIV infected people globally are located in Africa. These countries, and those which receive no assistance for their blood services, are prioritized by SBFA to receive as much support as possible to secure a safe blood supply. The plan of SBFA is to help each country to maintain an independent, centralized operation that will collect, manufacture, test and distribute blood products; provide laboratory infectious diagnostic services; house infectious disease testing equipment; house diagnostic testing equipment and operate a data center for regional processing locations.
Tips and comments:
African distrust of the health care system is associated with decreased likelihood of previous blood donation. This may be secondary to donor centers being viewed as a component of the health care system. Building trust between donor centers and the African community by ensuring the safety of donation may increase African blood donation rates. SBFA is almost the only reliable online blood banking foundation in Africa. There is a dearth of online blood banks in Africa because this part of the world thrives on racism. With all those racial conflicts going on, no one has ample time to go and donate an amount of blood from their body in order to save a dying fellow citizen’s life
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