By JOAN Barsulai
Itâs 2pm on a Monday, and a young man in his mid-20s is seated in his office attending to clients. A few minutes into the meeting, his secretary interrupts with an urgent message: A childrenâs hospital has just called asking for blood to save a young leukemia patient in need of blood from 36 donors.
The meeting is put on hold as Evans Muriu scans through his online blood donor database, Wanadamu, and immediately sends an alert to all the blood donors with the matching blood group that is required.
Online blood bank
SAVING A LIFE IS JUST A CLICK AWAY: Evans Muriuâs online blood bank is eight months old and is already creating an impact by saving lives. [PHOTOS: JOAN BARSULAI AND COURTESY /STANDARD]
Within no time, the donors rush to the hospital to give blood, and in less than 12 hours, the hospital contacts Muriu to thank him for the help.
Muriu started the Wanadamu initiative, an online blood bank, last July, to help save lives by availing blood to those in need immediately. The astute businessman and philanthropist picked the name Wanadamu, which in Kiswahili means human beings, but in this context means âwe have bloodâ.
"I wanted to ensure no life was lost before its time because a patient couldnât get any or enough blood in time."
So on July 4, last year, Wanadamu went live. By July 8, the team got their first appeal for AB+ blood from a patient in a hospital in Parklands, Nairobi.
Luckily, their database already had an AB+ donor. Once contacted, he rushed to the hospital and donated the required blood â and saved a life. For Wanadamu, it was a historic moment, for they had successfully attended to the first appeal.
As days went by, more and more appeals came through as the number of willing donors signed up at an amazing rate.
On July 26, another appeal for a patient in critical condition in another Nairobi hospital came through. Within three hours, the hospital had received more than the quantity of blood needed to save the patient. Yet donors kept streaming in.
