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Orange Social Venture Prize International Grand Prize Winner for Sierra Leone, Joseph David Koroma, has on 8 March 2023 launched his digital innovative project “Lifeblood Sierra Leone” together with partners.
The launching took place at the Princess Christianity Maternity Hospital, Fourah Bay Road in Freetown.
The purpose of the App is to bring technology to the health sector and ease the burden of getting blood at the hospital.
Joseph D. Koroma, the Founder, and CEO of Life Blood start by thanking the different partners who in diverse ways made his dream become a reality.
He said the journey of developing the Life Blood App has not been easy but with the help of his team members they were able to conquer the hurdles and with where they are present, they are more willing to move forward even though there is more work to be done.
He disclosed that Lifeblood is presently operating in four different hospitals which include Ola During Memorial Hospital, Princess Christian Maternal Hospital, 34 Military Hospital, and Rokupa Government Hospital and there are plans to extend to other facilities in the country adding that they have registered over five hundred donors through the App.
The Lifeblood App was officially launched and a tour was taken to the different departments of the facility which was climaxed by different donors donating blood for the facility.
“Lifeblood was born since the day I was born because if I was not alive I couldn’t have taken this drive.
It has been a very long journey from where it began and where we are now and we are not stopping we shall continue,” he said.
The chairman of the event, Dr. Mustapha Kabba DCMO Clinical at the Ministry of Health and Sanitation said Sierra Leone for the first time now has an App that will track the availability of blood in hospitals.
He continued that the idea is in line with the Ministry’s agenda of bringing technology to medicine as this will help in the reduction of the child mortality rate in the country, and bring a conducive working space as they will train the end users on how to make use of this technology.
He said the Ministry of Health is happy with such development and promised to support, own, and help in popularizing it to the beneficiaries adding that the ministry has a digitalized system of data collection that will work directly with the Life Blood App making sure all health facilities in the country have access to it without any other duplicate.
Madam Annie Wonnie Katta, Deputy Chief Commercial Officer B2B Orange SL Ltd explained that in 2011, Orange SL launched the Orange Social Venture Prize which aims at rewarding local entrepreneurs and innovators annually as young people from across 17 plus countries in Africa and the Middle East where Orange is operating are asked to pitched innovations ideas that will help to solve societal issues.
She further stated that the 2022 innovation competition was won by a Sierra Leonean with the Lifeblood innovation adding that they are pleased as a company with the trend Life Blood is taking in society as that is the motive of the Orange Social Venture Prize.
Country Director Concern Worldwide, Austin Kennan, an organization also encapsulates that Concern Worldwide is passionate about maternal mortality, noting that the main reason why they decided to partner with Blood Life.
He revealed that the major cause of maternal mortality is related to blood, adding that he was pleased to hear from the Chairman of the event, who is a representative from the Ministry of Health speaks about linking Lifeblood to other hospitals across the country.
Kennan noted that the Blood Life initiative will put Sierra Leone on the map as other countries will want to do the same.
Mahmoud Idriss, Chairman Board of Directors AutoHealth – the company which developed the Life Blood App, said he believes that technology will make every single work easy for all sectors.
He said for the last seven years he has been helping different organizations help in the development of technology stating that he appreciated the Ministry of Health for adopting the service and all other partners.
He disclosed that Joseph who is the founder and CEO of the Lifeblood App has been working with him since 2017 and this is the first App he decided to make available to the people through the Orange Social Venture Prize.
He said Lifeblood is about helping the facility manage its processes and is a community App as it makes it easy for one to donate blood, adding that blood does not have a factory as it can only be get from humans.
He concluded by stating that Lifeblood is mainly to help mobilize community people to donate blood voluntarily to help save lives across the country, especially children and victims of accidents. He added that they are trying to popularize the App to community people to help them know why they should donate blood, how to donate and where to donate, and its benefits.
Prof. Dr. Sahr Moses Gevao, head of the National Safe Blood Service reiterated the statement of Mahmoud Idriss, saying there is no factory for blood but can only get from a human.
He made mentioned the different types of blood, adding that with the App they will be able to easily access donors which will reduce the way and manner people are losing their lives due to blood shortage.
The Lifeblood App was officially launched and a tour was taken to the different departments of the facility which was climaxed by different donors donating blood for the facility.
