Khalili urges Shias to donate blood on Ashura

KABUL as part of an ongoing campaign.

Khalili said instead of shedding blood on roads, the mourners should throng blood banks on the 10th of Moharamul Haram to help promote the culture of blood donation in Afghanistan.

The Hazara community leader called the Imam. He also called on the media to play its role in promoting the blood donation culture.

Speaking on the occasion, Health Minister Suraya Dalil told reporters the blood donation drive was launched in Kabul and provinces in the month of Muharram as an act of civic culture, brotherhood and philanthropy.

She said blood collection centres had been set up in Kabul, Kandahar, Mazar-i-Sharif, Herat, Logar, Ghazni and Bamyan provinces. The ministry lacks adequate supply of donated blood and could not reach out to all injured people and other patients needing blood.

The public health minister said blood collection centres would remain operational for some days in major hospitals in Kabul, including Rabia Balkhi, Malalai, Wazir Akbar Khan, Aliabad and Ibni Sina Hospitals.

She said mobile teams had also been constituted to operate in populated areas of Kabul by using schools and religious seminaries during the campaign. Dalil said so far 400 CC of blood had been collected in Kabul.

She said the donated blood, after going through a series of medical tests, was transfused to war victims and surgery-needing patients.

ma/mud

Visits: 0