Gayaza locals defy FDC directive, donate blood
Mr Denis Jjuuko, an official from CEHURD donates his blood in Gayaza at the weekend despite threats by FDC party to mobilise it's members not to donate blood after the Uganda Blood Transfusion Services last week, refused to get blood from it's supporters on grounds that they had politicised it. Photo by Anthony Wesaka
What you need to know:
- The party chose Valentine’s Day for the blood drive among its members to save lives as a sign of love for fellow countrymen/women.
- But the blood field officer of Uganda Blood Transfusion Services, Mr William Mugisha, while speaking to NTV Uganda, defended their no show at FDC party headquarters on grounds that FDC had politicized the whole exercise.
KAMPALA. Despite threats by the largest opposition political party, Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), to rally its supporters against donating blood, residents of Gayaza, which is a locality in the backyard of FDC founder, Dr Kizza Besigye, over the weekend defied the directive and donated blood.
The blood donating drive in the areas of Gayaza, Kasangati, Nakwero and the surrounding areas that was organized by a civil society, Center for Health, Human Rights and Development (CEHURD), saw a fairly big number of residents turn up to donate blood at Nakwero-Gayaza on Saturday.
Reacting to the current politicization of the blood drive, Mr Denis Jjuuko, an official from CEHURD said: “Everything in this country has been politicized to the extent that even politics has permeated peoples’ lives in this important activity of saving lives. I think it should have been detached from politics in the first place.”
Mr Jjuuko added: “If FDC mobilised people to come and donate blood and the blood wasn’t collected, I think that was a wrong step in a wrong direction because there is a current national crisis that everybody needs to respond to. It shouldn’t be seen in the prism of politics or anything else but in the prism of the need to save life. I urge everybody in Ugandan society not to repeat this.”
On Valentine’s Day last week, FDC had mobilised its party members to donate blood but the Uganda Blood Transfusion Services, a government body that has the mandate to collect blood from people, made no show at their party headquarters in Nanjjanakumbi, an omission that angered its leaders and supporters.
FDC had organised the blood donation drive in response to the ongoing blood shortage in the country.
The party chose Valentine’s Day for the blood drive among its members to save lives as a sign of love for fellow countrymen/women.
“A gift to humanity, how can they be foolish? how can they do this?, when we were collecting blood, I didn’t know that there was FDC blood, may you go to hell,” FDC’s vice chairperson Proscovia Salam Musumba, slammed government for rejecting their blood.
But the blood field officer of Uganda Blood Transfusion Services, Mr William Mugisha, while speaking to NTV Uganda, defended their no show at FDC party headquarters on grounds that FDC had politicized the whole exercise.
