The Red Cross showed up last week asking to take blood from staff and students to combat the severe shortages in Ugandan blood banks. Most blood in Ugandan is accessed through secondary schools such as ours, but because of our remoteness, this is the first time we’ve been asked to participate.
Uganda’s Blood Bank truck rolled up during our weekly Assembly and gave amazed students more facts than they had imagined about blood and blood-giving to typically embarrassed jeering and laughter. (Did they just say MENSTRUATION?!) Some students were highly suspicious of the donation process, imagining that we were trying to find out their HIV status. I caught the tail end of the assembly when students were hovering between excitement and distrust and watched the tide flow towards excitement as the Red Cross worker asked ” how many are ready to donate blood??” A few hands shot up than more and more. The many staff hands raised drew more students in. Students 17 years and older who volunteered were given hemoglobin tests to determine eligibility to give. (I didn’t see a single student fail the hg test despite the local populations startlingly low rates, a good sign that we’re doing SOMETHING right with student feeding.) The biggest deal for students was the soda and sweet cookies they were given post-draw, a treat some students wanted badly enough to lie about their ages to the Red Cross workers. Surprisingly though, I felt students were truly excited about this opportunity to be a part of something bigger; to help.

David and I both donated despite scarily lax procedures which we didn’t expect: no gloves (too expensive, they said), and no hand washing between patients. We did confirm the single stick needle. Maybe we would have backed out, but having already subjected our students and staff we felt committed. This is the blood that I will be transfused with, should I need it here, I guess I’m going to have to trust these people.

Amidst the hardships of daily life at CSB it is good to see our students giving back - good that we are reaching out to help the many Babwisi so much less fortunate than those who have found their way here to Christ School. This blood will be tested in Fort Portal then will come back to save their own relatives lives at Nyhaku Health Center, only one-half kilometer away. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so good about giving blood.