By Charles Mgbolu
Dr Ahmed Ali Muse, a 33-year-old trauma surgeon in Somalia's capital city Mogadishu, was at home when the deafening sound of an explosion shook him out of his reverie. The impact of the blast, which took place around 2km away, was so powerful that it destroyed a portion of his roof.
He would hear soon after of the catastrophe that struck Mogadishu that day – October 14, 2017 – as two truck bombs heaped death, destruction and terror on the teeming city. Health officials reported that 587 people lost their lives and 316 were injured.
While the toll was heavy, a team of young Somalians, including Dr Muse, contributed significantly to ensuring that the number of casualties didn't go any higher.
"My training as a surgeon kicked in. I knew that victims of the blasts would flood the hospitals in the capital and there would be a desperate need for blood transfusions," Dr Muse tells TRT Afrika of that fateful day.
As the time of the terror attack, the east African nation did not have a national blood bank. Dr Muse knew he only had minutes to act.
Even before racing to the hospital emergency unit, he jumped onto Facebook, making a rousing call for blood donations. In a few minutes, droves of volunteers had trooped to hospitals around the blast scene.
"When I arrived at the hospital, people were already waiting to donate blood. It was a moving scene which showed the power of our humanity. Even though we lost a lot of people that day, this act equally saved a lot of lives," he recalls.
Social media saviours
A Facebook page called Somali Blood Donation Volunteers apparently made the difference between life and death as Mogadishu battled the ravages of the terror strike.
The group, although a brainchild of Dr Muse, is run by a team of 12 volunteers: a mix of doctors, information technology specialists, finance specialists and general administrators.
"Our aim is to amplify on social media the voices of people desperately calling for blood donors," says Dr Muse.
"We pick up requests from everywhere – individuals or local regional hospitals — and announce these aggressively on all our social media platforms. We also encourage followers of our pages to announce requests from anyone in need of a blood donor. On our page, someone is asking, and someone is offering to give."
The group was set up in 2015, a year after Dr Muse earned his medical degree at the Southern University in Somalia.
"It was difficult imagining working as a surgeon in these circumstances because I knew there would always be situations when an urgent emergency blood transfusion is required.
With no national blood bank, how do we get blood into hospitals quick enough to save lives? What if immediate family members are not a match? What happens? I was so afraid," he says.
Since 2015, the group has developed a database and now has over 40,000 followers on Facebook.
They also created dedicated WhatsApp chat groups for all eight blood types. These groups have 14,000 blood donors combined, consisting of college students, members of the military, hospital staff, and members of the core team.
"We are now so well known that we get requests directly from hospitals. If there is a specific blood type needed, we simply go on the WhatsApp group page and make the request there and someone will respond," says Dr Muse with pride.
The level of awareness and response didn't come easy, though.
"The first time we got donors due to our calls on social media was on the 7th day of February 2016. I will never forget the date.
This was after many months of relentlessly sending out messages that was a combination of donor requests and public sensitization, many without a single acknowledgement," recounts Dr Muse.
The team also faced financial constraints.
"We needed and still need effective software applications that can help us store donor data, but as you know paying for and maintaining these storage apps can be expensive."
A nation's cross to bear
According to Somalia's Health Demographic Survey report for 2020, the country ranks 6th globally, with one of the highest maternal mortality rates of 692 per 100,000 live births in the world.
Lack of access to safe blood is a major cause of maternal mortality. Each year, 5,000 Somali women die from childbirth complications, according to a 2017 United Nations report.
In August 2022, The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNPOS) announced it was supporting the government of Somalia in the construction of the country's first fully functioning national blood bank.
Using more than $3 million in funding from the United Nations Population Fund, and with technical guidance from the World Health Organisation, UNOPS is planning, designing, constructing the national blood bank as well as procuring its equipment.
The news got a rousing applause from medical personnel across Somalia, who have for years worked under very challenging conditions.
"It would go a long way in easing the pressure we have all been under," says Dr Muse.
"But I and my team will continue to do the work that we do even after a national blood bank is set up. We have a dedicated community, and we will continue to do what we can in ensuring that blood gets to whoever needs it in the way we know best, and that's by wielding the power of social media."
