Ghana

 

U.S.  Office

1025 Thomas Jefferson Street,, NW,

Suite 525East

Washington, DC 20007

Phone:  (202) 333-5304

E-mail:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

African Headquarters

Knights Piésold House

4 de la Rey Road, Rivonia, South Africa, 2128

P.O. Box 783902, Sandton 2146, Sandton, South Africa

Phone: +27 - 11 234 9851; E-mail:

ingrid @ safebloodforafrica.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since 1999 the Safe Blood for Africa Foundation™ (SBFA), has gained extensive experience in providing Technical Assistance (TA) for the establishment of fully functioning, sustainable, centrally-coordinated, National Blood Services in Africa in accordance with prescribed best practices advocated by WHO and accredited by international organisations such as the AfSBT.  The SBFA is dedicated to the establishment of sustainable Blood Services according to these guidelines.  Our operational structure, based on the Blood Safety Value Chain (BSVC) is a framework designed to demonstrate the connectedness between various components that are critical to making up a centrally coordinated National Blood Service (NBS) that is fit-for-purpose for developing and resource poor countries.

 

Long term Technical Assistance (TA) needs for the National Blood Service Ghana (NBSG) Ghana were initially addressedthrough Task Order (TO), Blood Safety Technical Assistance Services contract # 200-2010-36449-0003, funded by the CDC through PEPFAR.  Subsequent support for development is via the Ghana Blood Safety Technical Assistance Services Cooperative Agreement contract (PEPFAR CoAg Grant #1U2GGH000869-01).

 

Our Mission

The SBFA is assisting Ghana in developing the NBSG, focussing on improving all aspects of the operation including Donor Recruitment and Management, Blood Collection, Testing, production of Blood Components, distribution, training across the BSVC and Quality Systems.  The SBFA provides Technical Assistance related to the following five key technical areas:

  • Situational assessment;
  • Blood collection, donor mobilisation and conversion of Family Replacement Donors to repeat Voluntary Non-Remunerated Blood Donors (VNRBD);
  • Blood Testing and Serology;
  • Quality Management Systems including (M & E); and
  • Training across the BSVC.

 

Our Achievements:

Since 2012 SBFA has:

  • Conducted a desktop analysis of Blood Safety in Ghana with a comprehensive field assessment to guide the NBSG in developing a strategic plan.
  • Worked with NBSG to develop an inclusive five-year Training Programme for all staff.
  • Completed initial training programmes on:
  • Blood collection planning;
  • Donor recruitment and formation of donor clubs such as Club25;
  • Introduced pre- and post-donation Counselling;
  • Appropriate Clinical use of Blood; and
  • Quality systems.

 

Activities planned for 2014-2015:

  • Monitoring the effectiveness of the blood collection programme
  • Assisting with the further development of SOPs, documentation and training materials
  • Conducting donor recruitment training and conversion of FRDs to repeat VNRBDs
  • Conducting follow up counselling training
  • Development of skills to prepare components
  • Developing job descriptions and training and mentoring plans
  • Extending Quality systems and M & E training to all areas of NBSG
  • Introduce a viable paper based M&E system
  • Prepare for the introduction of the Blood Safety Information System (BSIS)
  • Assisting with implementation of an NBSG wide training plan for Accra, Kumasi and Tamale

 

Projects