When Vera David-Emesiobum and her team made a routine visit to the home of Mama Ikwo, she expected to find her as she usually did: with a radiant smile and a warm embrace.
Instead, David-Emesiobum discovered Mama Ikwo alone on the floor and seriously injured.
"She was lying in a pool of her own blood," David-Emesiobum recalled.
Sometime earlier, Ikwo, a blind woman in her mid-80s, had tripped on a sharp piece of metal unintentionally left in the house by one of her grandchildren. The fall had left her with significant blood loss and a dislocated hip. David-Emesiobum and her team quickly sprang into action, tending to her injuries before taking her to the nearest health center. As the center's medical staff treated Ikwo, it became clear she would need a blood transfusion.
"I thought 'Why not me?'" David-Emesiobum recalls thinking. "I like to donate blood, so maybe I can donate to her."
Her Mission to Help Mama Ikwos Across Nigeria
David-Emesiobum now lives in Lagos but grew up in a village in Cross River State, the same region of southern Nigeria where she met Ikwo back in 2022.
Recognizing a need for elderly care, David-Emesiobum founded the nonprofit Project Grey Elderly Care six years earlier. She started the organization with a mission to provide compassionate care to aging and vulnerable Nigerians, and has done that with tremendous success in the years since.
"So far, we've distributed 20,000 free meals to seniors in slum communities and villages," said David-Emesiobum, adding that the nonprofit is currently planning to launch a multi-service community center for the elderly.
MORE: How to support the OBI-founded nonprofit Global Blood Fund
On Project Grey Elderly Care's website, you'll find its mission statement, which reads in part: "to lend them a helping hand and a voice, so that they live as valued members of society."
The nonprofit had been supplying Ikwo with regular food and financial assistance since her adoption into their program months earlier, but as David-Emesiobum waited to see if she would be a blood donor for Ikwo, she prayed she could do more.
It took nearly a full day before she learned that her O-positive blood type made her an ideal donor for Ikwo.
"When I discovered that it was a perfect match, it made me really happy," David-Emesiobum said. "Beyond the relationship that we've built over time where we could provide food and financial assistance to her, I could be there for her in a more intimate, familial way."
As for Ikwo? Thanks to David-Emesiobum's blood transfusion, she made a full recovery.
"She lives and breathes as we speak," David-Emesiobum said.
Raising Awareness through 'the Grassroots Stuff'
David-Emesiobum shared this story with Global Blood Fund and its Lagos-based partner, Action on Blood, as part of a recent contest promoting the merits of voluntary blood donation in Nigeria.
Nearly 60 other Nigerians submitted their stories as well, sending in essays, poems, dances, animated videos, and more.
"We had so many calls, so many inquiries, I had to dedicate a single member of my staff for that whole month just to pick up the phone," said Action on Blood’s founder, Abiola Okubanjo.
That level of interest would signal major success practically anywhere, but in a country like Nigeria, it was an especially remarkable feat. Nigeria, like many low-and middle-income countries in the world, struggles to recruit voluntary blood donors. Its population of 200 million needs an estimated 1.8 million units of blood each year – in reality, only about 66,000 units are collected annually.
Okubanjo said a lack of awareness around the concept of voluntary blood donation is a significant reason for that discrepancy, and was the motivation behind the contest. To raise awareness effectively, though, the Action on Blood founder knew her team would have to get to work.
"We actually did a lot of face-to-face in the real world," Okubanjo said. "That’s what you have to do. You have to do the grassroots stuff… the amount of activity was amazing."
And the Winner Is... Nigeria!
When it came time to determine a winner for the competition, its judges faced some very difficult decisions.
Ultimately, the judges awarded the third place, $200 prize to Chukwuemeka Nwanebi, who is now training as a dental intern at the same hospital where he received a lifesaving blood transfusion as a child. The second place, $300 prize went to Ikenna Sunday, who sent in an inspiring superhero-themed animated video.
And then, of course, there was David-Emesiobum: the winner of the competition and its $500 grand prize.
"I screamed so loud, everybody in my house was like 'What’s going on?" David-Emesiobum said when she learned she had won. "I was like ‘I just won! And I just dropped my phone. I was just thankful. I was just grateful."
All of us at Our Blood Institute, Global Blood Fund and Action on Blood are grateful too! Thank you to Vera David-Emesiobum, Ikenna Sunday, Chukwuemeka Nwanebi, judges Dr. Bodurin Oshikomaiya, Rizzy Akanji and Oluwafemi Ajayi, and each and every person who told us their story about the critical importance of blood donation.
Moved by this story? Give blood at any OBI center or mobile drive and forego your gifted T-shirt and you'll be supporting all of the amazing work being done at Global Blood Fund!
