Villgro Africa has awarded Damu Sasa, an innovative end-to-end blood service information management system, $20,000 for their contributions to mitigating the spread of COVID-19.
Damu Sasa works across the entire eco-system by mobilizing donors, tracking their donations through screening and manufacturing of products to transfusions. Their system increases voluntary donations from across the population, delivers a sufficient supply of safe blood, improves tracking and reporting of utilization countrywide.
The team has grown from 1 hospital in 1 city to 53 hospitals in 9 counties in 2020. They have facilitated over 9,000 transfusions and have over 70,000 registered donors on their platform.
During COVID-19 the Damu Sasa team has provided online booking for blood donation appointments, personalized booking links for each hospital, evidence-based educational articles, blood screening for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, and mobile text reminders of safe practices.
Villgro Africa will offer technical assistance alongside the grant. We believe their ecosystem-level visibility/real-time monitoring up to transfusing facilities generates data needed for better planning and management of blood at an ecosystem level, thus increasing blood availability.
Damu Sasa improves efficiency and reduces waste at the facility level and leads to lives saved and improved health outcomes.