Rotarians pledge to save lives in Nigeria

9 rotary clubs unite, save lives in Africa:
The brainchild of Warren and Jamison Kaufman of Carmel Valley, The Safe Blood Africa Project provides blood refrigeration and storage.

Nine northern California Rotary clubs are joining forces to save hundreds of lives this year in Nigeria, where one out of four people die — primarily women in childbirth and children who are anemic due to malaria — because their country lacks an available blood supply or transfusions are often tainted.

Under the leadership of Sheila Hurst, president of Redding West Rotary Club, a total of $6,000 is being raised with donations coming from clubs in Anderson, Antioch, Corning, Dunsmuir, Red Bluff, Walnut Creek and two other Redding-based clubs — Redding Rotary and Redding Sunrise Rotary — to purchase a self-contained blood bank refrigeration unit, a special gasoline-powered generator and voltage stabilizers capable of powering the refrigeration unit and a hematologist's laboratory during frequent power outages.

Donations from local clubs are eligible for a 100 percent or $6,000 matching grant from Rotary International's District 5160 that includes all nine clubs. The $12,000 raised in this manner is then eligible for a 75 percent matching grant from Rotary International, yielding the full $21,000 purchase price of the equipment needed, explained Warren Kaufman, director of The Safe Blood Africa project.

Kaufman, a resident of Carmel Valley, conceived the non-profit foundation that he now directs while leading a five-week vocational Group Study Exchange in May of 2002 to the West African nation of Nigeria, a country that is roughly twice the size of California but with 130 million people or nearly four times California's population.

One of the visits Kaufman and other team members made on that visit was to the courtroom of Edemekong Edemekong, a Nigerian superior court justice and fellow Rotarian who also suffers from sickle cell anemia, an inherited trait that requires frequent blood transfusions.

Kaufman also visited Uyo Teaching Hospital, where he learned about the desperate need for safe blood banks in a country where 10 percent of the adult population is infected with HIV, and even more people have hepatitis.

Of every 1,000 Nigerians who need a blood transfusion, 240 die either from a lack of supply or from receiving infected blood. Ninety-seven percent of those fatalities are women in childbirth or anemic children under the age of 14.

Two years later, and after trading 178 e-mails with Justice Edemekong, the two men urged their respective Rotary clubs to tackle the blood bank problem as a joint service project, Kaufman said.

Kaufman delivered the first refrigeration unit, built in the United Kingdom by Hobart/Foster International, and helped dedicate a newly-constructed blood bank at the Uyo Teaching Hospital in 2004.

Surrounded by Nigeria's top officials and broadcast crews from several of the country's television and radio stations, Kaufman said he was inspired to donate blood for the first time.

"Here I was dedicating a blood bank and I had never given blood," Kaufman said. "On my way in to give blood, I walked past a ward where a woman had just given birth to a child. She was hemorrhaging and was going to die without a transfusion. So, I gave blood, and it was so exciting. It was a huge day for me. There were maybe 400 people who had turned out for the dedication. So I jumped up from the couch where I had given blood and I fainted away."

Hours later, when Kaufman was once again able to negotiate the hospital's hallways, he again passed by the ward where he was introduced to the woman, who just hours before, had been pale and near death from loss of blood.

"She was sitting up in bed, healthy, with her child. She had received a transfusion of blood, and I felt as if I had saved a life. It was the most exhilarating experience," Kaufman said. "At that moment, I grasped the potential implications of the Safe Blood Africa project. It now had the face of that mother and child. It became my calling that day."

Since 2004, Kaufman and his Nigerian partners have delivered and dedicated 13 more blood banks, with six more on order for delivery in 2009.

"This project has created the opportunity of saving a least 11,000 lives each year in Nigeria, and we are able to do that year after year," Kaufman said.

Part of the project involves overcoming superstition and social perceptions against sharing blood, as well as educating the people about healthy blood and the importance of donating an ounce of it from time to time. That work is done primarily by the Rotary clubs in Nigeria, who work with local churches in educating potential blood donors regarding the risks and benefits of sharing healthy blood.

Rotary clubs interested in participating are encouraged to contact Warren Kaufman, Director, Safe Blood Africa Project, 9694 Carmel Valley Road, Carmel, CA 93923. Telephone: (831) 620-1780.

The project's Web site is www.safebloodafrica.org. Kaufman can also be reached by e-mail at wkaufman@safebloodafrica.org