مقالتي عن توقف العمل في المركز الوطني لنقل الدم في اليمن في صحيفة ناشيونال يمن الانجليزية في عددها الاسبوعي ليوم امس .
My Article about the suspending of National Blood Center in Yemen has been published in Yesterday Issue No.114 in National Yemen (EN) .
By: Sadam Al-Adwar, youth activist and beneficiary of the center’s services
Many Yemeni families – including my own –
have at least one child who suffers from one of the blood diseases
which are prevalent in this country (including blood cancers, hemophilia
and thalassemia).
A disaster recently struck such families
when operations were suspended – it’s now been over a week – at the
National Blood Transfusion and Research Center’s (NBTRC) main office in
Sana’a, as well as eight of the center’s branches in Yemen’s largest
cities.
On a daily or weekly basis, families have
brought their children to these locations for medical attention and, in
many cases, life-saving blood infusions.
How could such a disaster be allowed to happen? After looking into the matter, I can summarize the reasons as follows:
1) An insufficient operational budget for
the main office in Sana’a and the other branches (in Aden, Ibb, Abyan,
Hajja, Hadhramout, Hodeida and Taiz).
The annual budget for the NBTRC in 2007
was around YR 750 million, when the center received 10 – 20 blood donors
a day. This year’s budget was reduced by the government – as
represented by the Ministry of Public Health and Population – to YR 350
million, even as an average of 150 donors come to the clinic on a daily,
24-hour basis.
2) The NBTR Center provides its services to everyone free of charge.
3) Center staff are paid less money and receive insufficient benefits
when compared with staff at other medical centers. At the same time,
there is an absence of much-needed technical and administrative staff.
These reasons – and doubtless others – were behind the closing of the center’s doors to both beneficiaries and blood donors.
As I write these lines, my heart bleeds for my country and the
families with children who have blood diseases – as they suffer and
while no one seems to listen and feel their pain.
Tens of families are currently waiting
for NBTRC to open its doors and save their sick children…and dozens of
citizens wait to return to work so as to be allowed to draw a smile on
the faces of children – and save the life of children simply by donating
a few drops of their blood.
While the Ministry of Public Health and
Population did nothing to solve NBTRC’s problems, the Ministry itself
was the cause of many of the center’s problems when, beginning in 2008,
it began replacing a qualified management team led by Dr. Arwa Aoun with
one which was less-qualified.
The poor treatment and funding of NBTRC
in recent years stand in contrast to the center’s inception, via
Presidential Decree number 58, issued on 7 May 2005. When work began on
March 18, 2006, NBTRC locations were equipped with the latest technology
and medical equipment, and enabled with legal rights and sufficient
finances.
With these lines, on behalf of my family and all the families which
benefit from the center’s services; on behalf of all those who are
affected by the center’s suspension of operations, I appeal to President
Hadi, Prime Minister Basindowa and the Minister of Public Health and
Population to solve the problem as soon as possible – before this
present disaster begins to see the loss of lives of children who are
already suffering from pain each and every day.
I also appeal to health and human rights
organizations to pay attention to this problem and draw the attention of
decision-makers to it. I’m sure that we can all agree that a child has
the right to live and grow in health and safety.
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