MMUST Social Work students marked the International Women’s Day on 8th March 2018 at the Busia Agricultural Training Centre (ATC). In an activity organized by the Red Cross, the students participated in creating awareness on blood donation to boost blood banks. Kenya often faces desperate situations that require blood transfusion. Led by Halima Abdi, the students shared experiences with the community on various cases where blood donations have been necessary, and mostly as emergencies.

 “Many women in Busia have suffered overbleeding during child birth, while some have been experiencing acute anaemia during pregnancy” said Halima. In concurrence to this, Leah Okumu indicated that “Many girls within Matayos Sub-county of Busia lose excessive blood every month making them suffer anaemia, and hence they have been put on iron supplements”.
Apart from that, road accidents and other disasters have been occurring in different parts of Kenya. In such cases, blood is usually a desperate need. Rosemary Wangeci a Social Work student who is also a security practitioner raised concerns over past experiences where sufficient blood was difficult to find. “We had terrorist attacks during the 1998 bombing of the US Embassy, the Westgate Mall Attack in 2013, Mpeketoni-Lamu attacks of 2014 plus other multiple deadly aggressions inside and outside the country”. 
MMUST runs programs on matters of gender equality, children’s rights, HIV/AIDS, Criminology, Disaster Management among others. Such programs address the relevance of blood. The students were enthusiastic that the International Women’s Day could be used to promote the roles that women play in ensuring a better world.