NBSZ Chief Executive Officer Lucy Marowa
BY MUNYARADZI BLESSING DOMA
The National Blood Service Zimbabwe (NBSZ) has made a clarion call to all eligible blood donors to come forward and fill the national blood banks, emphasising that every drop counts and will save lives.
The call was made by the NBSZ Chief Executive Officer, Lucy Marowa, this Monday morning (1 June 2026) at a press conference ahead of World Blood Donor Day.
Globally, World Blood Donor Day is celebrated on June 14 each year, but NBSZ will lead local commemorations on June 12 in Bulawayo, at John Tallach High School.
This year’s commemorations will be held under the theme: “One Drop of Humanity: Give Blood, Save Lives.”
“Let us go out there, bring a friend if you have never done that before.
“Let us take our friends and families to the nearest blood centre and you, as a blood donor or potential blood donor, do not leave without joining the river of blood donation.
“Together we can save the nation of Zimbabwe through that one drop that makes the river of life,” said Marowa.
She re-emphasised, “If you used to be a blood donor, step forward and restart your journey.
“If you have not donated blood before, this may be a good time to ask yourself why have I not done this before?
“Would it take me a lot of time to really make that simple decision that could spell the difference between life and death for the next person?
“Bring a friend, bring a family member and maybe you may make the difference for your own family or your own friend by simply making that one life-changing donation.
“Let’s fill up our blood banks, go to the nearest blood bank.”
She then went on to reveal the current stocks (of blood) in the country’s blood bank, explaining that they measure stock in terms of how many days’ cover of supply is available.
“When we say we have adequate stock, we are looking at a minimum of five days’ supply of blood, but you do know that blood is divided into many different blood groups.
“But we talk mainly about the A, the B and the O. As we sit right now, with Blood Group A we are sitting at eight days’ cover.
“With Blood Group B we are looking at 13 days’ cover and then with Blood Group O we are at between 2.5 and 3 days’ cover.
“So that means that we need more of Blood Group O than the other blood groups.
“So we are not critical, I will emphasise we are not critical but at the same time we would like to make sure that we have enough. So our O is not at the ideal level, but we are not critical,” said Marowa.
She went on to encourage those with Blood Group O to step forward so that the stock can be pushed up to a minimum of five days’ cover.
“When we talk about the five days, it means that we have enough in case of an emergency that stops us from going out there to collect blood.
“We will be having enough stock to take us through the next five days without us going to collect blood.”
Marowa also spoke about the Blood Donor Benefits Policy, which benefits current donors with a minimum of 10 donations for adults.
“This is a programme where we are saying if you have given a minimum of 10 times continuously, when your last donation is valid within the last 12 months, meaning you are a current donor, should you or a close relative require blood, when we talk about a close relative, we are talking about your parents, we are talking about your spouse, we are talking about your children.
“Should any of them require blood, we will be able to give it to them free of charge if you are in a private institution.
“If you are in a public institution, it’s already free by the way, so there’s no need to be claiming donor benefits.”
She emphasised that the benefit excludes siblings, uncles, aunts and friends.
“So your donations must be at least 10 if you are an adult, but if you are a school-going child, your donations only need to be five because we are saying it will take you time to get to 10.”
