Tema, March 28, GNA - The Bethel Methodist Youth Fellowship, on Saturday organised a blood donation exercise to support the Blood Bank of the Tema General Hospital as part of activities marking its 25th anniversary celebration. During the screening before the donation most of the ladies in the group could not pass the Haemoglobin test and the Principal Blood Donor Organiser of the Tema General Hospital, Mr John Ahadjie advised them to eat balanced diet and engage in more physical exercise to condition their bodies. According to him 80 to 90 percent of the blood that was used by the Hospital came from students in the senior secondary schools and urged other churches to also organise themselves and support in saving people's lives by also donating.

The President of the Association, Mr Frank Osei Sarpong, said the exercise was their contribution towards supporting the Blood Bank to meet the high demand of blood to save lives and to ensure that there was always enough blood for emergencies. He cautioned the youth on the deadly disease AIDS, which he said had no cure and advised them to abstain from early sex to ensure that they did not contract the disease.

In a related development the Church of Jesus, Ashaiman Central, has presented food items worth over 5 million cedis to the Children's Ward of the Tema General Hospital as part of activities to climax its 5th anniversary celebration. This was after a clean up exercise organised by the youth of the Church, at the Ward and the Out Patients Department of the Hospital. The Head Pastor of the Church, Pastor Baffour Asare Hayford, pledged the church's support to the ward every quarter of the year.

The Nurse in Charge of the main Children's Ward, Ms Dora Amadzi thanked the church for the gesture and expressed the hope that other churches and organisations would emulate their example. She said the inability of parents to settle their bill was a major problem facing the ward and pleaded with philanthropists and Non-Governmental Organisations to come to the aid of such needy parents.