In October 2018, the ComeTogether Team in Belgium, a volunteer corporate group of 10 associates, organized a blood drive focused on external promotion within the business park and successfully welcomed 70 donors and received 55 blood units. Our partner and customer, the Flemish Red Cross, considered the drive a success, as there were people whose last donation was 20 years ago. The report showed that potential donors in Belgium lack easily accessible places, close to their offices, to donate blood. Terumo BCT Belgium hosted its second blood donation this May 2019 with more than 100 donors preregistered.

A USD $10,000 grant will support a distance-learning certification program in donor recruitment and management education. In partnership with the Africa Society for Blood Transfusion (AfSBT), GBF has agreed to produce in 2019 a video series of 12 lectures written by leading African experts covering topics across the often-neglected discipline of donor recruitment and management.

These video lectures will be made available online and free of charge to professionals throughout Africa, thereby overcoming the limitations and costs associated with delivering on-site, face-to-face training. Certification will encourage participation and allow practitioners to show evidence of their competence, which will improve standards of donor-related professional practice in Africa as well as, potentially, other resource-limited settings.

A USD $12,000 grant will support a pre-donation blood typing pilot project in Ghana. The concept of blood typing as a pre-donation engagement strategy is well established and has been successful in a small number of African countries but has not yet been widely adopted. GBF has agreed with the blood authorities in Ghana to co-design and support the pilot introduction of “What’s Your Type?” campaign to establish impact. This proven approach should lead to improved donor recruitment in Ghana and an evidence base for further implementation in other countries where this strategy might be beneficial.

The hope is this program will help address the shortage of volunteer donors in Africa, which is arguably the most significant blood bank challenge facing the continent.

Working with hundreds of partners globally, Project C.U.R.E. matches these valuable donations with healthcare facilities in severely resource-limited communities to empower doctors and nurses with the tools they need to treat disease, deliver vaccines, perform life-changing surgeries and ensure safe childbirth. Thanks to the dedication of thousands of volunteers nationwide, Project C.U.R.E. has touched the lives of patients, families, and children in more than 130 countries.

In October 2018, Terumo BCT was a USD $10,000 bronze sponsor for Project C.U.R.E.’s 8th Annual High Rollers for Health & Hope. Funds raised at the event supported the shipment of medical supplies to hospitals and clinics in Serbia.

In early 2019, Terumo BCT provided a USD $27,700 grant to Project C.U.R.E. to fund a 40-foot C.U.R.E. Cargo shipment of medical supplies to Bura Sub-County Hospital in Tana River County, Kenya, in partnership with the First Lady of Kenya Margaret Kenyatta. It is anticipated that the supplies will arrive at the facility in autumn 2019.

Associates also volunteer their time. The Charitable Contributions Review Committee spent a November afternoon at Project C.U.R.E’s Denver warehouse sorting medical supplies. During their holiday meeting, the Procurement and Supply Chain team assembled nearly 100 Kits for Kids — small backpacks filled with personal hygiene and basic "medicine cabinet" items that are scarce in the developing world.

As part of Terumo BCT’s new charitable giving strategy, the company is working to formalize a program to donate product and lab equipment to Project C.U.R.E.

For nearly a decade, Terumo BCT has donated blood bags to Mercy Ships. These bags are vital to the mission of Mercy Ships. Volunteer staff and crew on board the Africa Mercy regularly donate blood to meet the ship's transfusion needs for the 7,000 surgical interventions performed on board each year.

On average, Terumo BCT provides 1,000 blood bags in response to each annual or biannual restocking request received from Mercy Ships. In FY 2018, we donated more than USD $3,800 of product, including blood bags, blood transfer bags and aluminum sealing clips for blood bags.