The staff of BDO EA Rwanda last week on Friday, June 10 donated blood as part of the auditing firm’s efforts to save lives and fill the national blood banks.

BDO EA Rwanda is a branch of BDO International which is the fifth largest auditing firm in the world.

At around 3 PM, the staff members of BDO started arriving at Rwanda Biomedical Centre’s division in charge of blood transfusion and all of them were first screened for blood related diseases, gave consent after having read the eligibility criteria to voluntarily donate blood.

"There is no factory producing blood, it is our responsibility as Rwandans to help fill our national blood banks, save lives and contribute to the public health of our community,” commented Emmanuel Habineza, the Managing Partner of BDO East Africa.

The staff of BDO EA Rwanda in a group photo as they donated blood as part of the auditing firm’s efforts to save lives and fill the national blood banks last week on Friday, June 10. Photos by Craish Bahizi

"We understand the need for the public health of our society, and our role to play so as to ensure we are safe. We are businesspeople but we do understand that business can’t be run in a poor health system, that is why we are giving back to the community in this way,” he added.

Every second globally, someone is in need of one blood unit.

BDO officer  in charge of the audit, Roy Kinoti Nkandau during the interview.

Managing Partner of BDO EA Rwanda Limited, Emmanuel Habineza speaks to the media during the blood donation activity in Kigali on Jun 11. / Photo by Craish Bahizi

Roy Kinoti Nkandau, one of the BDO staff in charge of Audit asked people to be proactive in terms of blood donation.

"We don’t need to wait for a friend and relative to get in their hospital bed for you to rush and do give a donation. It is impactful and even helps you get a free check of your blood group and your health in general,” he observed.

On the side of RBC, Alexia Mukamazimpaka who is in charge of Community Mobilisation in the National Center for Blood Transfusion, lauded BDO efforts for not turning a deaf ear on the donation of this very precious medical resource.

The blood donation activity was conducted at  Rwanda Biomedical Centre’s division in charge of blood transfusion on June 10. Bahizi

"It is of immense pleasure for us to have BDO staff members coming here with such commitment and thinking about this very life-saving initiative, because it might be one person in need of blood, but maybe tomorrow it might be you, that is why it needs all our efforts,” she noted.

Rwanda’s blood satisfaction rate stands at 97 percent.

Last year, RBC collected 71,932 blood units countrywide and targets 86,500 units of blood this year.

The blood donation exercise was part of BDO CSR course which takes place once every three months, other activities include the support to genocide survivors and vulnerable communities among others.

The blood donation exercise was part of BDO CSR course which takes place once every three months

The global auditing firm provides different services including audit and other business services outsourcing which includes accounting and tax advisory services.

The Rwandan branch is also under BDO East Africa (BDO EA) which is a centrally managed network of offices across Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Ethiopia with 11 partners and more than 250 professional staff.

The regional branch also reports to BDO International.