Castel Malawi on Wednesday joined the rest of the world to commemorate the World Blood Donor Day by donating blood as part of its contribution in saving lives.
The Blood Donor Day is celebrated on June 14 every year, but Malawi celebrated the day on June 17 nationwide under the theme ‘Give Blood, Give Plasma, Share Life, Share Often’.
Castel Malawi’s Human Resource and Corporate Affairs Director, Gloria Zimba said the company decided to partner with Malawi Blood Transfusion Services (MBTS) in the cause as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility in saving lives of Malawians.
“MBTS requested companies, well-wishers and the society in Malawi at large to partner with them because they are lacking blood in hospitals. Their main issue is that sometimes they do have patients especially in the emergency ward, who have been involved in accidents or patients who have undergone operation and need blood, but sometimes blood is not readily available in their blood banks. So, we sensitized our employees to join the Ministry of Health and MBTS in particular to donate blood.”
“Castel Malawi is a corporate organization and if there is such a call, we believe we should partner and be part and parcel of this initiative. You never know who is going to use this blood, it could be our relatives or indeed our own employees, that is why we thought we should be proactive and partner with MBTS to donate this blood,” she said.
Zimba urged employees to continue with the exercise at MBTS offices throughout the period.
One of the employees, Innocent Chipate commended Castel Malawi for arranging the blood donation exercise.
“This has given us a chance to donate blood which we believe can save somebody somewhere, even our fellow staff. The gesture also encourages love amongst us,” he said.
MBTS thanked the corporate world for their response to commemorate the World Blood Donor Day with blood donation by employees.
“We are grateful to all those who chose to celebrate the day with a blood donation,” reads the message on MBTS Facebook page.
The Blood donation exercise took place in all Castel Malawi sites in Blantyre, Liwonde, Lilongwe and Mzuzu.