Dr Justina Ansah, Head of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital Blood Bank, on Tuesday, said the bank needed 100,000 units of blood annually to serve patients in need of blood throughout the country.

She said that could possibly be achieved if two percent of the Ghanaian population would enrol as blood donors and donate regularly twice a year. Dr Ansah said this at this year's launch of the Freemasons Sponsored Blood Donation Campaign in Accra.

The campaign, which is the 11th in the series have been solely supported by the Freemasons to recruit students to voluntarily donate blood to save lives. Dr Ansah noted that the bank's target of having 100,000 units of blood to serve the country have never been achieved due to the decline by donors.

She said "apathy of the citizenry towards blood donation activities accounts for the decline". This year's campaign, which has targeted 2,000 units of blood, is under the theme "Donate Blood: Help Save the Lives of Women in Childbirth".

About 1,650 Ghanaian women die each year at childbirth due to severe anaemia and excessive bleeding which could be avoided. The maternal mortality rate in the country on the average is 214 deaths per 100,000 live births.

"We should therefore, take safe Motherhood seriously and help prevent the avoidable deaths of women who are only performing their physiological duty of bearing their communities future generation", she added.

Dr Ansah called for the reintroduction of the "Pledge 25 Concept" where those leaving school would continue to donate blood at least 25 times in their life. Professor Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi, Minister for Education, in a speech read for him, regretted that seven out of every ten maternal deaths was due to either profuse bleeding, obstructed labour, unsafe abortion, hypertension and sepsis (infection of the womb).

He, however, entreated the public to adopt voluntary donation as a civic responsibility, adding "this is a reliable source for the provision of safe blood to save lives".

The Freemasons Schools blood donation competition for 2002 was divided into the northern and southern, secondary and tertiary schools respectively. The Bolgatanga Girls Secondary emerged the first with 362 units of blood donation followed by Osei Kyeretwe Secondary School in Kumasi with 254 units and Ghana Secondary School also with 240 units.

For the tertiary, the Bolgatanga Royal Secretarial School won with 208 units. Saint John's Grammar Secondary School for the southern sector, won with 181 units, followed by O.L.A Secondary School in the Volta Region with 175 units and Ebenezer Secondary School with 149 units. A.R.S. Technical Institute at Pig Farm in Accra won with 119 units of blood. They were presented with trophies, table funs, shields and ghetto blasters.