ktravula – a travelogue!

Meeting Zuckerberg

Not personally (though that would have been nice).TemieZuck

The CEO of Facebook dropped by Lagos, Nigeria yesterday – his first visit to the continent – to visit with the tech community and see for himself what they’re (we’re) doing. He also stopped by places where his foundation has invested millions of dollars, e.g. Andela. Read more here on QZ.

What I’m most pleased by, though (along with the usual delight at his interest in the growing tech space in Nigeria where a number of amazing things are happening every day by young people working very hard with very little) is the fact that he met Temie Giwa whom I’ve talked about on this site countless times – she’s someone whose company LifeBank is doing a lot of good things in the technology space, using a mobile app to connect hospitals and patients to sources of clean and affordable blood supply at record time, thus saving hundreds of lives around Lagos.

What she’s doing hasn’t happened in Nigeria before. Hospitals usually had to physically go around looking for matching blood, usually during emergencies. This has led to many problems, failed matches, and dying patients. The intervention of LifeBank comes to provide not only matching blood types with patients who need it, but also delivering said blood (which has been tested by the lab and by the state government) in record time, and in good condition, to the hospital 24/7. This is poised to change the way healthcare delivery happens in Africa’s most populous country.

Temie talks about the meeting here.

temieMarkGetting investment from a person of Zuckerberg’s stature in such a startup will be revolutionary for the speed and expansion of LifeBank’s work – and I hope that he considers doing that. Getting it from anyone actually will. The possibility of such eventuality has now hopefully risen with such a public validation, and that’s delightful news. Also delightful is the reality of a dawning future in which technology is being adapted to different field in order to deliver outstanding results. This is the future. Nigeria, now officially in a recession, is certainly in need of such not-so-divine intervention.

This is what Mark has to say about LifeBank (around the 8.30 minute mark in this video):

“If everyone had the opportunity to build something like this, then the world would be a better place… I’ve been to a lot of different cities… people around the world are trying to build stuff like that. If she actually pulls it off, then she’d show a model that will impact not just Lagos, not just Nigeria, but countries all around the world.”

During his live town hall meeting referenced above with developers and entrepreneurs, Mr. Zuckerberg referenced a quote which he said guides much of his work: “The best way to predict the future is to build it.” From the amount of great changes now taking place around the country and around the world fueled by the power of imagination and the tools of technology, it’s hard not to wholeheartedly agree.

Meeting Zuckerberg was published on August 31st, 2016, with the tags , , , , , , under the Observations, Opinion, technology category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

The One Percent Project

Out of a need to save lives in Nigeria today comes this new idea called the One Percent Project. Nigeria, a country of over 160 million people, still gets by with a crippling healthcare system and a large portion of its population without access to adequate emergency care. 25% of maternal mortality today is due to unavailability of blood. The current blood donation and distribution system is poorly regulated and coordinated. Hospital based blood collection leads to a highly inefficient and fragmented system.

The recent UN bomb blast in Abuja is a case in point. Within minutes of the attack, the National Hospital in Abuja ran out of blood and many patients lay there, waiting to die. A bleeding trauma patient is said to need more than 100 units of blood. Blood usage today is growing at 3 times the national population growth and there is no other known substitute for human blood.  The Nigerian Ministry of Health estimates that 10% of HIV/AIDS infections in the country were caused by the use of unsafe blood. That is: 1 in 10 HIV positive people in Nigeria were infected because of unsafe blood transfusion.

The One Percent Project seeks to bridge this gap between blood donors and recipients. It is estimated that if one percent of all Nigerians (1.6 million people) will be willing to give blood when needed, much of the problem will be solved and over 13,500 lives of pregnant women and thousand others in need will be saved. With a need of about 1.5 million to 2 million pints of blood annually, the project hopes to recruit young voluntary non-remunerated blood donors. These donors will only have to sign up with One Percent, and share their location in the country. This information is then shared – as need be – with the National Blood Transfusion Service in Nigeria, and other hospitals, at their moment of need. With a database of 1.6 million people, there hopes to be at least one person near every emergency around the country who will show up when called upon to fulfil his/her pledge to donate blood when needed.

I’m involved in this project (along with a few other dedicated health professionals) and very passionate about its success. You should be too. If one percent of Nigerians to donate blood (3 times a year for women and 4 times a year for men), the problem is virtually solved. If you are reading this and you are a young Nigerian between the age of 17 and 65, or you have lived in the country for more than five years, please take a moment to complete this survey right now. It will take about five minutes. Then check out the website foronepercent.org. Follow the organization’s twitter account to get updates on the project and hear about blood drives coming near you. The organization also needs an army of volunteers to get the project working from the ground up in Nigeria. If we all will sign up to be called upon whenever a hospital near us needs blood to save lives, and we will heed that call, we can make a difference, one volunteer at a time.

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The One Percent Project was published on December 20th, 2011, with the tags , , , under the News, Observations category. There are currently 1 comment on this article so far.

The Blood Bank

IMG_3127As soon as we passed by the Red Cross blood donation point at the SIUe quadrangle today, Chris and I, and managed to steer our conversation to donation of blood, I knew that I had come to another ktravula moment in the life of this journey. You see, I am conscious of all the dimensions of my Nigerianness, and about a year ago, just after I published my short story Behind the Door, I had had a conversation with an American friend who told me that she had been denied the chance to donate blood in America – for life – just because she ticked “yes” on a pre-donation questionaire that asked whether she has had “sexual contact” with anyone who was from or who had lived in Nigeria and some other sub-saharan African countries between 1977 to date. I didn’t believe it even after she sent me the online questionnaire, so I googled it up myself, and the result was indeed stunning. Nigerians, and everyone who has had sex with them were excluded from donating blood in America. (I don’t know yet if this is the same all over the world). The obvious question then is “Why?”, and it had circled my head for a while now, until that time this afternoon when I came within sight of the Red Cross truck on campus, asking students to donate blood. This website mentions requirements to donating blood in America but does not say why Nigeria is mentioned. So, you guessed it, I went right into the truck, leaving Chris outside to gape at what he said was an obvious time-wasting effort.

IMG_3124There was a sign-in sheet on the table. It had the name of those who are on the waiting list. On the examination table is a young woman whose blood was being taken. She had a pump in her right hand.

“Hi. Can I help you?” A young lady approached me. She wore a white lab coat.

“Yes,” I replied. “I’d like to donate blood.”

“Alright. You will have to write your name in here. The next slot opens at 1.45pm, and there are about three people before you already. Is that fine?”

“Yes, of course it is. I can always come back. But I’d like to know if there’s anything I need to read before you take my blood. Maybe instructions or anything like that.”

“Sure. Here, on the wall, is the first instruction. It’s important to read and understand it. And here is the comprehensive manual that every donor must read and comply with.”

“Can I sit and read it in lieu of going and coming back?”

“Yes, why not. Please sit over there.”

“Thank you.”

IMG_3137And read I did, carefully, until I got to where I am mentioned. Indeed, it’s written there in clear black ink of the excluded list. If you’re from Nigeria, If you have been to Nigeria, or had “sexual contact” with a Nigerian. Or if you have had malaria in the last three years, you CANNOT donate blood. I called her back and asked her why.

“HIV and AIDS, you know.”

“What?”

“HIV/AIDS”

“But you do know that not all Nigerians have HIV and AIDS, right?”

“I guess, but, erm, it’s what the FDA says. We just follow the law.”

“Oh my! So what you’re saying is that you have no way to know which blood is infected and which is not?”

“Like I said, it’s just the law, and we just follow it.”‘

By this time, a more mature looking woman also in a lab coat had shown interest in the conversation but maintained an aloofness that told me that she would allow the younger lady handle the situation rather than get involved. Whenever I looked in her direction expecting her to say something, she just smiled.

“I can’t believe this.” I said, as I gave back the booklet to her. “I guess I have to go now since you don’t want my blood.”

IMG_3125

They didn’t say anything so I left, back to listen to Chris say “I told you so.” If she had said they do this because of malaria, I could have been a little more understandable. But AIDS? By population figures, there are probably more HIV infections in North America right now than in West Africa, but it is not so pandemic here because of adequate healthcare and healthy living. With the right technological advancement in medicine in the United States, this definitely did not have to be a factor for denying opportunity to a certain demographic to contribute to efforts to save lives worldwide. If I sound a little upset, it could be because I am at the incredulity of the whole matter. Maybe there are some things that people like me are not meant to understand.

The Blood Bank was published on December 4th, 2009, with the tags , , , , , , , , under the adventures, Observations, Soliloquy, Travelling category. There are currently 23 comments on this article so far.