blood donation

Temie Giwa-Tubosun (born Oluwaloni Olamide Giwa, 4 December 1985) is a Nigerian-American Health Manager, Founder of LifeBank (formerly One Percent Project), a business enterprise in Nigeria working to improve access to blood transfusions in the country.

Temie was born in Ila Orangun, Osun State, Nigeria to a university professor and school teacher. She is the fourth of six children. Her name “Temie” came from the abridging of “Temitope”, one of her birth names.

She grew up in Ila, Ilesha, and in Ibadan until she was fifteen. When she was ten, her parents won the US Diversity Immigrant Visa and left for the United States with the three older siblings. In 2001, at fifteen, she left to join them with her two younger siblings.

Temie attended Osseo Senior High School, Minnesota, and graduated in 2003. She then attended the Minnesota State University Moorhead and graduated in 2007. In 2008, she went to graduate school at Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey from where she graduated in July 2010.

In January 2010, she went for a graduate fellowship at the World Health Organisation in Geneva, Switzerland, which lasted till July of that year when she graduated Middlebury Institute of International Studies Monterey.

She worked briefly at Fairview Health Services in Minnesota in 2010.

In January 2016, Temie founded LifeBank, a business organisation set up to tackle the problem of blood shortage in Nigeria. The founding was inspired by the birth of her first child and the complications from that experience. The technology and logistics company is based in Lagos, and incubated at Co-Creation Hub in Yaba. As at January 2017, the company has helped deliver over 2000 pints of blood to patients across the state.

On August 31, 2016, she met with Mark Zuckerberg during his first visit to Nigeria. She was one of the two women Zuckerberg referenced in his town hall meeting the next day. Of her work, Zuckerberg had said,

“If everyone had the opportunity to build something like this, then the world would be a better place… I’ve been to a lot of different cities… people around the world are trying to build stuff like that. If she actually pulls it off, then she’d show a model that will impact not just Lagos, not just Nigeria, but countries all around the world.”

Of the meeting, Temie said to Quartz, “Mark’s visit is validation for years of work and everything we’re trying to do.”

However, according to him, only about 500,000 pints have been raised.

Alonge disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Lagos, during a health and blood drive at YABATECH.

The theme of the event was: “True Humanity to Peace”.

The event included blood donations and a free breast screening for female staff and students.

Alonge said that the Nigerian health sector records a lot of emergencies whereby patients require blood daily and sometimes, they have to spend so much in search of blood.

“The statistics show that in the Nigerian health sector, we need two million pints of blood but we’re able to raise only 500,000 pints.

“This mainly comes from family donors when their loved ones need blood.

“But we see many accidents and other situations where people need blood daily and sometimes find it difficult getting it,’ he said.

The commandant said that the vision of NRCS, Lagos State, is to ensure that blood is available in their bank.

“In January, our detachment raised 120 pints and this time we were able to raise 90 pints, making it a total of 210 pints,” he said.

Alonge said the reason for the decrease was because only full-time students were in school presently, compared to January when the part-time students were there.

He urged people to participate more in humanitarian activities like blood donations to help save lives.

Commending YABATECH detachment, Mr Lawson Sekegor, Chairman of the Mainland Division of the society, said the amount of blood raised at the event would help the state’s branch surpass it’s target.

“Normally, we have expectations from the state body, the number of pints for this year is 500.

“Based on the amount raised here and what we already have, we can beat the target because we need less than 10 pints more to reach it,” he said.

Jonathan Adegboye, 18, a student of the University of Lagos, who donated blood said the exercise made him happy knowing he was helping to save lives.

He added that it also helped him overcome the fear he had of donating blood.

“Overcoming the fear was not a day’s job; last month, I tried donating blood but I gave only two millilitres before I backed out,” he said.

Another donor, Deborah Adeola, a 22- year- old student said that donating blood gave her the opportunity to check her blood pressure, weight and blood level.

Also, Mr Olakunle Lasisi, the Secretary of NRCS, Lagos Branch, urged Nigerians to imbibe the act of voluntary blood donations to help ensure there is enough blood in the blood banks.

He noted that donating blood not only benefits the recipients but also the donors.

According to him, he had an experience a few years ago where he was usually drowsy and sometimes felt dizzy.

He decided to go for a general blood test and was advised to go and donate blood.

“Blood donation refreshes donors.

“Not donating blood is not beneficial to you because you will end up having more than required, which has its disadvantages,” he said.

NAN reports that donating blood may help the donor reduce risks of cardiovascular diseases and other health conditions.

It also gives the donor the opportunity to get a free blood analysis which may include testing for HIV and hepatitis.

According to FEDHEALTH, a South African health blog, blood donors are 33 per cent likely to suffer from cardiovascular disease and 88 per cent less likely to suffer a heart attack.

“The lowered health risks have to do with iron depletion. Iron has a significant impact on the body.

“High blood iron can cause a variety of symptoms such as irregular heartbeat, muscle weakness, hardening of arteries, accelerated cholesterol oxidation, decreased libido and enlarged liver.

“When donating blood, you are removing 225 to 250 milligrams of iron from your body, reducing your risk of health complications,’ it said.

Credit: NAN, Pulse News

PROFILE| MEET TEMIE GIWA-TUBOSUN, FOUNDER OF LIFEBANK

NIGERIA NEEDS 2M PINTS YEARLY FOR EMERGENCIES – RED CROSS