UJOSS President, Patrick Oyet was among a group of journalists who donated blood. (Photo: Alual Marial).

Some South Sudanese journalists have donated blood in Juba, responding to a call by their union leader, amid reports of dire lack of blood at the bank.

The media professional donated blood after Patrick Oyet, the President of the Union of Journalists of South Sudan, called on them to voluntarily carry out the life-saving act ahead of the World Blood Donor Day due on 14^th June.

“I feel like there are a lot of people who are complaining that there is no blood, but they don’t come here to carry out the process of donating the blood,” said Awan Achiek.

Another journalist Anika Sasha also dispelled misconceptions about donating blood, adding that it is completely safe when facilitated by medical professionals.

“There are other stories also around blood donation that if you donate, you going to be sick, and I heard that if someone donates blood, you won’t give birth, where are people getting all these stories from?”

“So that’s why I think donating blood is very important because when you donate blood you save lives. We understand that there is no factory where people manufacture blood its only through donation that you can save life.”

In his remarks, the President of South Sudan Union of Journalists, Patrick Oyet said it’s not enough for journalists to report on the importance of blood donation.

Mr Oyet added that journalists must actualize the message by donating blood as an example to the public.

“I can tell you that journalism is changing, it is no longer enough for us to just report that there is lack of blood, our people need blood and blood is not there.”

“There are things that we can do which do not really affect our profession. It does not affect our ethics, so those things that we can do like blood donation, we urge our members to real do.”

According to the Director General of Public Health Laboratory, majority of blood donors in the country are foreigners, accounting for 77 percent as per a 2020 data.

Dr. Lul Lojok Deng has called on the citizens to turn up and donate blood to save lives of vulnerable people especially children and mothers.

“In 2020, when we visited to see how many people donated, which category of people donated, we found that only 23% are nationals 77% are none nationals,” he said.

“We complained that we have a nation if we are not saving lives of our people. Do we think that we can still say that this is a nation that we own. It’s owned by those who support the vulnerable people, let us change this, let us reverse it.”

“We want 80% to be nationals and 20% will be foreigners, it’s not difficult, it’s not difficult you can do it and those that can do is a civil society like sustainable agency for empowerment.”

Meanwhile, David Nicholas, the Coordinator of Sustainable Agency for Empowerment has called on the South Sudan media fraternity to enlighten citizens about the importance of blood donation in saving lives.

“We were like why don’t we engage our journalists and media houses for them to come because they will start as the pioneers,” he said.

“When they go out there through their social media platforms, through the radios and televisions, they can be able to talk about the importance of donating blood because we are seeing everyday people are dying from accidents.”

The campaign which began yesterday is headed by Sustainable Agency for Empowerment (SAFE) in collaboration with the Union of Journalists in South Sudan.