A Gift of Blood: Opinions and Experience of Voluntary Blood Donors on Repeat Blood Donation

Donating blood is an essential practice that can help save lives. Effective strategies are necessary to attract and keep blood donors to meet the demand for safe blood. To evaluate the experience of voluntary blood donors in Zanzibar, a survey was conducted, and purposive sampling was used to select participants who had donated blood multiple times. The study involved interviewing 15 repeat blood donors, and the data collected was analyzed thematically. Two main themes emerged from the analysis: motivators and barriers. Despite a few negative effects, most participants had positive experiences with repeat blood donation, and only few experienced physical reactions during or after the process. The study concludes that blood donors in Zanzibar generally have good experience towards repeat blood donation, although community participation, education, and sensitization are needed to recruit and maintain more donors.