After more than two decades, Dr. Oromo Francis, the South Sudan health ministry undersecretary, remembers the nine-year-old child who died after a family refused a blood transfusion on religious grounds.
Speaking during the inception meeting and Memorandum of Understanding signing for the new phase of the blood donation project between the Ministry of Health and the South Sudan Red Cross in Juba on Tuesday, Dr. Oromo said myths and fear surrounding blood donation continue to cost lives across the country.
“It was one day in Khartoum,” he recalled. “A patient was brought, a child, nine years old, with severe anemia and anemic heart failure.”
Doctors urgently needed blood to save the child’s life, but the family hesitated.
“The father was saying, ‘Well, let us ask the pastor,’” he narrated. “Then the pastor said, ” No. In their congregation, they don’t give blood.”
“After two days, the child died. I was the house officer at that time,” he said quietly.
Years later, while specializing in pathology, Dr. Oromo encountered the same pastor again under very different circumstances.
“We met with the same pastor bringing his brother, who was vomiting blood, and he required blood,” he said. “When I came, I found the pastor himself donating blood to be given to his brother.”
The experience left a lasting impression on him and continues to shape his campaign against misconceptions surrounding blood donation in South Sudan.
“That is why I have a lot of opinions about these issues,” he said. “You look at the scene of one’s face. He struggled to make sure his brother was alive, but he allowed the other child to die.”
The emotional testimony formed the centerpiece of a wider appeal by the Ministry of Health and the South Sudan Red Cross to strengthen voluntary blood donation and improve access to safe blood across the country.
Speaking before health officials, humanitarian partners, and Red Cross representatives, Dr. Oromo stressed that blood remains one of the most critical yet scarce resources in the country’s healthcare system.
“There is no factory for blood. It is not there in the pharmacy,” he said. “The only thing is you get from one of you, and it will help your identity.”
He described blood as “another medicine” and “a magic drug,” emphasizing its lifesaving role during emergencies, maternal complications, surgeries, and severe anemia cases.
“Large-threatening emergencies can only be handled instantly when you give blood,” he said.
South Sudan continues to face major challenges in maintaining sufficient blood supplies, especially for women experiencing complications during childbirth. Dr. Oromo pointed to conditions such as placenta Previa and abruption placentae, which often require urgent transfusions.
“The maternal child has more abilities than emergency cases,” he said. “We still have abnormal deliveries with bleeding that are still there.”
Beyond emergencies, the Undersecretary called for long-term reforms to modernize the country’s blood transfusion services. He questioned why, years after independence, South Sudan still lacks widespread access to blood products such as plasma, platelets, and concentrated blood components.
“What are we waiting for?” he asked. “White blood cell concentrates, red blood cell concentrates, platelet concentrates, plasma. All of these, what are we waiting for?”
Dr. Oromo also challenged the country’s dependence on donor funding, urging the government to build sustainable national systems.
“I am one of the people who does not like begging,” he said. “I want us to have our own things instead of going to depend on donations all the time.”
While acknowledging the role of partners, he argued that external support alone cannot transform the health sector.
“What we are given cannot allow us to move the mountain,” he said. “So, it is our own that will allow us to do that.”
The Undersecretary further called on religious leaders and communities to help dismantle myths surrounding blood donation.
“We also have the religious leaders who can help us break down this myth,” he said.
His sentiments were echoed by Dr. Peter Adwok, a national parliamentarian from the House’s standing specialized health committee, who said confirmed encountering the same situation where members of some Christian denominations object to blood transfusion.
He said he believes fighting such cultural and religious norms requires serious awareness raising, and that, besides religious beliefs, some cultures believe that blood transfusions cause barrenness.
“There are people in different parts of this country who believe that if you donate blood, you will not be able to produce, but this needs to be proven wrong,” he said.
The lawmaker recalled how he got into an argument with a member of those churches that forbid blood transfusion, prompting him to question where it was written in the bible that blood transfusion is bad.
“Some churches, like Jehovah’s Witnesses, prevent blood transfusions. I talked to one of them and asked why they do that and where it is written in the bible that blood cannot be transfused,” he narrated. “We reminded them that the first blood spilled for humanity and to take away the sins of the world is the blood of Jesus. Indeed, it was not transfused into anybody, but the fact that he died on the cross means he spilled blood.”
The medical personnel further called for awareness raising and maintained that denying blood transfusion is not scientific and should not be entertained.
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