A partnership between the Malian Ministry of Health (MOH), Physicians for Peace (PFP), Millennium Cities Initiative (MCI), and Safe Blood for Africa (SBFA) is reducing mortality from the severe shortage of safe blood in Segou, Mali by establishing a blood center at Hôpital Nianankoro Fomba (HNF).  After two years of fact finding and the construction of a new blood center building, the partners were poised to implement programming when the country experienced a coup.  Rather than withdraw, they re-committed, deploying equipment, supplies, and training in blood collection, storage, and transfusion.

The cornerstones of the program’s design are the engagement of local experts as trainers, equal input from partners, a robust evaluation plan, and the MOH’s commitment to sustain the blood center over the long term. 

HNF now houses a well-resourced blood center and twelve trained technicians.  Staff showed an average improvement of 17.7% between pre- and post-theoretical training tests. It is expected that HNF will collect 3,000 units of blood in 2013-14 and have the capability to perform component therapy, resulting in approximately 9,000 transfusions. In 2012, prior to full functionality, the hospital lab performed 1,500 whole blood transfusions.  Partners will continue to monitor transfusions and related mortality rates to measure impact.

Safe blood is one of the foundations of a fully-functioning health system and yet until this partnership, there was only one transfusion center in Mali to serve its 16 million citizens. Even under volatile political conditions, the strong partnership commitment will ultimately alleviate unnecessary deaths.