As a response to the appeal of Hala Zayed, Minister of Health and Population, to raise awareness on the importance on blood donation, the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources initiated the sector’s first blood donation campaign. The major campaign was held under the patronage of the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Tarek El Molla, and took place from June 18 to July 4.

The campaign was organized by the Ministry of Petroleum and Egypt Oil & Gas Corporate Social Responsibility (EOG CSR) Subcommittee, in collaboration with the Egyptian National Blood Transfusion Services and the Ministry of Health and Population.

In recognition of the campaign’s importance and the core role played by the ministry, El Molla inaugurated the campaign on June 18 by being the first donor.

It is worth mentioning that the campaign is the inaugural activity by the EOG CSR Subcommittee, which was launched to promote CSR awareness across the petroleum sector and encourage participation in social programs and community services.

Campaign Goals

The campaign served several pivotal goals, chief of which is saving the lives of many emergency patients across Egypt. The mass campaign has successfully raised awareness on the importance of blood donation not just within the sector but far beyond. The campaign has also ensured the social print of the oil and gas sector.

Participating Entities

The blood donation campaign represents the first joint CSR cooperation activity between national oil companies (NOCs), international oil companies (IOCs), and Joint Ventures (JV), under the umbrella of the Petroleum Ministry. Across Egypt’s governorates, many companies took part in the campaign through the creation of donation points in the headquarters, bases, fields, and refineries, responding to El Molla’s kick-off of the blood donation campaign.

After achieving such a massive success, there is a need to develop more strategies to reduce individuals’ fear and motivate them to be part of more blood donation campaigns. In addition, there is a need to spread a philosophy of care based on humanization to increase awareness about voluntary blood donation and its importance.

Remarkable Results

Although the blood donation campaign was the first to be organized in the oil and gas sector, it received great acclaim from all the sector’s workers. Around 4,426 donors from 78 premises and 13 fields participated across different governorates, saving around 13,280 patients.

Cairo had the highest percentage of participation for more than half of the donors which is around 60%, followed by Alexandria, Port Said, Marsa Matrouh, the Red Sea, Suez, Damietta, South Sinai, and Kafr El Sheikh.

From the companies’ perspective, out of 35 participating NOCs, San Misr took the lead with 223 donors, followed by Town Gas and AMOC. Meanwhile, from Apache and Schlumberger were the biggest participating IOCs, with Khalda Petroleum and Petrobel leading the list of 20 participating joint ventures (JVs).