 There's a large majority of Nigerians or poor and according to reports in 2023, nearly 12% of the world population in extreme poverty lived in Nigeria, considering the poverty threshold at $1.90 a day. Now this number is increasing and overall the number of people living in extreme poverty in Africa was estimated to reach $422 million in 2025 by Statistica. Now this is why nurturing a culture of giving is crucial for building stronger communities, fostering individual growth and achieving a more just world. By promoting acts of generosity, we can alleviate poverty, bridge social divides, enhance individual well-being, create a more equitable global society, and inspire future generations to embrace compassion and responsibility. So today we're discussing the life-changing impact of building a giving slash donating culture. Now please let's hear what you have to say, remember you can join this conversation, send us an SMS or what's up to the rate 1-803-846-63. So I just want to ask you ladies, I mean for two seconds, when last did you give out or donate, whatever you want to call it? So giving is, so I would say the last time would be someone on the road. Okay. You do that all the time? As much as I can. Okay. Not every time because they can also get quite ill-behaved. Not all the time but yeah I do that as often as I can once I have something to give you. How about you Jennifer? That would be two weeks ago. Okay. And three weeks ago. So I gave out money to someone who just gave birth and she needed money to take care of her child. And then also gave out some clothes to some other set of people. But then my church also, we do some form of donation where we give out like I think like twice or three times a year. Yeah at least some donations to that. The community and then people bring money, they bring clothes, they bring food and then we just give it out to people. Nice, nice, nice, nice, nice. So Tyrone Saeed, a kid I am, is a member of the Nigerian Institute of Management and Certified Safety Professionals at the Institute of Safety Professionals in Nigeria. He is the co-founder, chairman, board of trustees, esteemed, life saver, initiative and non-for-profit organization. He is a sickle cell advocate, passionate blood humanitarian and has voluntarily donated blood to save lives more than 20 times. Ah, I will tell you why I clap later. So it's a culture for members of the ELSI to donate blood on their birthdays. That's fantastic. Through his organization and collaboration with the Lagos State Blood Transition Services, this sickle cell foundation in Lagos and the North. He has helped to mobilize hundreds of voluntary blood donors to boost the supply of blood in health facilities and save many lives. And he has joined us live in studio. Hi, Saeed. Hi. So let me tell you why I clap. Many years ago, I think Alpha was like a year old. I was breastfeeding. And my sister-in-law, she was in a critical state in the hospital. Sadly, we lost her, but she was in a critical state in the hospital. I remember because I am a universal donor. I remember them calling us like in the middle of the night, we had to leave Magudo all the way to VI here because the hospital was in VI here. So the nurses were asking about your breastfeeding. Can you donate? I said, of course. You understand? So I donated the blood. I think I did about two pints that night. So it was the guy that donated blood. It was just one. I think he was able to donate on maybe half. But the guys, I was telling them. I was telling them, you said 20. I said, ah! Because I hear that it takes a total of more guys. Maybe women, of course, were used to... Because we do monthly circles. So maybe we were used to blood leaving us. So maybe that's what we did. But the guy, I think half a pint of blood. The guy is nice. They had to sit him down to give him more. So when I saw 20, I said, ah! No. This one deserves a hand clap. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. I was just having a side. I mean, I want to discuss the subject of changing the narrative and building a culture of giving and donating. I know my church, for instance, in Deister. They built that culture in most of our members. So what we do is, when you have clothes that you're no longer using, just make sure it's in a good state. If you need amending, amend it, wash it. They tell you how. You can't just go and dump things like that. You have to wash it. You have to iron it. You have to fold it neatly so that you are giving it with dignity. Not that you're just dumping things on people. Then also, if you can't do cash donations, they buy food stuff. Because they do that every single... I think now it's even more than every circle in a year. Maybe festive seasons. They always do that. You will see. But we have a full-blown, full-fledged benevolence department. So we just go to donate things. So every now and then, my children have the culture. Once they think it does not fit anymore, because most of the things are still in good shape. They clean it up and they pack it. Mommy and daddy, we need to go and drop it. So we built that culture. But I realize that giving is not so much of a difficult thing for Africans. But the problem I am having was what she mentioned about beggars on the street. And I want to come from that angle. You understand? How has that impacted in the giving culture? Because I think now a lot of people are becoming very distant from empathy or emotions. Because they just feel like these things have become a business. So it is very difficult to give. So maybe we'll start from there. Thank you for having me. Thank you. So you started with giving out clothes, used items and maybe cash and all that. We are still going to come back and relate it to blood donation as well. Because that is also giving. So just a short story. While I was coming here, I started by the mechanic. And while I was there, some guys came to me and they were like, hey, Babao, all those guys. There was one that had a cut on his mouth. You know, these guys are not that. They are rough. They are rough guys. So when it gets dark, what they do, they switch to stealing. So they came to me and they were like, I had money with me but I chose not to give them. Because they could work. The guy fixing the car was a mechanic. They could do something with their hands. They are fit and agile. They could do something. So why would you beg when you can do something? While they came to me, a guy came, was selling air fresheners and told him to buy it. I said, no, this thing irritates me. I wouldn't really buy, but I can do something for you. So I bought, actually bought one of 600 Naira. While transferring to him, I transferred 1000 Naira. I told him that, look at these other guys that came. You met them, they met you here. They are begging around. They are not doing anything. But you are carrying this air freshener. How much are you going to end from it? Let me add to that. So the culture of giving is something from the arts. But it gets to a stage where you get very, you get tired of it. When you feel that you have been taking advantage of, yes. But sometimes when your culture is just to give, sometimes you don't look at that and you give. Whatever you do with it, it's a business. But you are trying to be done your own parts in it. So giving out clothing items, it should be a practical thing. It's a very easy thing to do because most of the time, we go out and buy new clothing. And over six months, we have things in a wardrobe. Even one year, two years. I will not touch that. I will not touch that. They are still in very good shape. So let me just give them out. So personally, I have that culture. Whenever I am buying something new, I give out something old. You understand? So I think as Nigerians or as Africans or as human beings, if we can impact that kind of culture, I think a lot of people will be happy. This can help people happy. So let's move quickly to blood donations because we did something really fantastic, partnering with some of the institutions to drive the need for blood donations. But first of all, is it truly a need? Do people actually look out for... Are people truly in need of blood, the way it is being projected? Is it a reality or it's just a myth or it's not true? It's a reality. We have, just as I was watching the screen now, talking about the lady that was caught in Dubai, only those that were around could arrest her blood, for instance. She wouldn't have lost so much blood. And if it was arrested and she finds her way into the hospital, she might have needed at least one pint of blood. So that's a need. And we have these instances every day. Whenever we're driving on the road, you see an accident, people losing so much blood. By the time they get to the hospital, they need blood. We have cancer patients. They need blood. Due to chemotherapy, they lose a lot of blood. We need to transfuse them. We need to replace their blood for them to continue to live. We have mothers in the hospital, during labor, they lose a lot of blood. We don't have enough blood. The first thing to think is that blood is not manufactured. You can't manufacture blood. It has to be given from human to human. It's easy for us to get animal blood. We'll be killing rounds every day to get their blood. But it has to be passed from human to human. So the hospitals need blood. Almost every hospital would need someone to give blood to someone to continue to live. We are short of blood in Nigeria. The blood banks are almost depleted. We need people to donate blood. That's our own passion. That's what we want to do. We want to get people to donate blood so that we can replenish the stock of blood in blood banks in Nigeria. Back to your question, we need blood. Whenever there's an accident, whenever someone is sick, blood needs to be transfused for them to continue to live. What are the typical misconceptions around donating blood? First of all, a lot of people want to say something at the end of the show, but let me just bring it up now. A lot of people think that your blood has been sold. When you donate blood, especially when it's being sold. That's the number one thing. When I posted that blood drive for the Akinsoyans, someone just sent a message after all they will sell the blood. I'm like, blood is not something you get anywhere. When you buy water, most of the time we buy processed water, filtered water, bottled water, and the cost varies depending on wherever you go to. If you buy on the island, you know how much you buy water for. Most of the time, you can't just go and fetch water from the stream and drink. The least we can buy is pure water or bottled water. This water goes through some process of filtration, cleaning and all that. The process of bagging it costs money. It's just the same way blood is. When you give blood, the pint of blood, and the bag of blood is used to collect your blood, costs money. The officials that take the blood from you are going to be paid. The facility needs to be maintained as well. It's going to cost money. It's going to be tested for about 12 infections and all these chemicals or regions used to test it will cost money. So at the end of the day, the end user would need to pay for all these things. So we have private blood banks that are running on the reliant on revenue from blood to run. We have the government blood banks as well. They also need money to run to function. Just like illegal state blood transition services have a center in Bagada Lagos. They need a very functional center with what class equipments for them to continue to run. I'm very sure that fund is needed. Fund from government might not be enough, but fund is needed. When you say blood is being sold or people need to buy blood it's because all these factors are plagued. I'm sure at some point in time I have donated blood before but how easy is it to just walk into a center? How many centers do they have in Lagos? How easy is it to just walk into a center and donate blood? It's quite easy to just walk into. There are centers laboratories, private laboratories in Lagos that you could walk into but we always recommend a government facility because they are sure that your blood is safe. Most of these government facilities have their mythology departments or labs where you could walk in and just tell them you want to donate blood and they will attend to you. Government? Yes. Like I mentioned Lagos state blood transition services, once you walk into that place, it's a very nice cosy environment. You can donate your blood. Within 20 minutes you are done and that's it. I wanted to ask though last night that I donated blood it was tested first. Yes. Because I know that they test you first right? So why does the blood still need to go through? Since I've already been tested and I've gotten a PASMA before they even decide to take my blood. So why does the blood still need to go through that process of being tested again that eventually now increases the cost? Okay fine. When you are being tested you are only being tested for HIV. No, no, no for HIV. You are only tested to be fit. They want to see if you are fit. Okay. So they check your blood sugar, they check your blood pressure as well. So then the other processes checking for syphilis, gonorrhea, HIV, hepatitis, they take time. So they can't really test that while you are donating the blood. So it has to go through the laboratory and take some time. So the only thing they test you for is to ensure that you are fit to donate blood. That's whether you do the pre-check or they now take the blood and then take it to the laboratory. Very interesting. I wanted to ask, so what happens by the time they test the blood and maybe there's... We didn't tell him back to me. There's one complication on the other one really. Okay. So you come and sit down and then they will... It's going to be destroyed. It's going to be destroyed. Right. Of course there's this thing about confidentiality. Because before you donate blood there's a form to fill all your details will be there. So if there's something wrong with your blood and they need to communicate with you, you get a call and then you come to the facility and they advise you on what to do. So say I want to donate blood tomorrow. Those are the biggest steps that I need to take health wise. Like keeping yourself. Before that. So let's take a very short break. I love you to answer that when we come back from that break. So please don't forget that thought. Stay with us, we'll be right back. Thanks for staying with us. Now if you just tune in, we'll have an amazing conversation with Saeed on life changing impact of building a given slash donating culture and we're specifically narrowing it down so please let's hear what you have to say. Remember you can join the conversation. Send us an SMS over at 3081 803-4663. So Jennifer had asked you a question before the break. Like what are the preps? If she says first thing tomorrow money she's going to Baghdad sent at the bank, give blood. What should she be doing? First of all, you need to have a good night's sleep. Before then, if you've not had dinner, try some and take a lot of water of water and vegetables. I think you'll be fine. So then by the morning, eat your normal breakfast. Then try to stay away from alcohol. I wanted to say shy. I said try. Yes, we stay away from alcohol so that your blood is reaching. So by the morning before you are being tested actually if you had breakfast if not, it's there for you and the freshmen. It's not. It's blood tonic. So my night should be fit to donate blood. Okay, go ahead. So when I asked about misconceptions, I know I've had a lot of it. And I've heard people say things about being paid to donate blood. Right? Do people do that? Yes, we have three categories of blood donors. Blood donors, yes. The first is voluntary blood donors. Just like what we're trying to drive. Trying to get people to go through street and let them donate blood from the arts. So these are the voluntary blood donors. Then we have replacement blood donors or family blood donors. Just like what you did, that was a replacement. Usually they would have given her blood from the blood bank. Then they would get a family member to come and replace that blood. In that sense, you don't need to pay for blood. If you're replacing blood, you don't need to pay. Yes, in government facilities you don't need to pay. Then they told our professional paid donors what they do basically is they just come and want to donate how much are they going to give them. They negotiate their blood and they get maybe 2000 or 5000. And they're about so they get that money and they go. After one week, they'll come back again and say, ah, I don't get blood for body. We collect another one, we collect money. So the World Health Organization and every facility is trying to discourage paid blood donors. Because the blood wouldn't be rich. If I donate blood today, I need about 5, 6 weeks to recoup my blood. About 12 weeks actually, yes, 10, 12 weeks to recoup my blood. The blood cells will come back to normal. Regenerate and all of that. I cannot do it again. So that's why it's encouraging for men to donate like 4 times in a year, not every 3 months. Then ladies 3 times in a year every 4 months because of the monthly cycle. Right. So back to your question. Yes, people get paid to donate blood but we are trying to discourage that at all costs. I was going to say the average cost of if you need blood for instance now what is the cost? How much does it come to? I don't think blood is as expensive as oxygen, right? Yes. It varies from facilities like I mentioned we have the private banks and we have the government banks so you are looking at it 20,000 to 30,000 for a pint of blood. So I know that government hospitals for instance when you are pregnant because I have heard some people say the people that had their children in government hospitals when you are pregnant part of what you were signed is that before I think you would have to donate your blood as well like you to replace like what you said the replacement blood bank you need to replace that. But the problem that I have is so the women then end up saying that but they did not give me blood they didn't really tell the women this is why this is being done it is in case you would need it if you don't need it anymore some model person would need it do you understand? Because I have heard that complains a lot it complains from mothers that yes I gave birth to a government hospital they took my blood but they never used it and you know so how do we start to probably educate people better sometimes share this information via our media platforms let people know that once you donate blood as the spouse of the woman in labor once you donate blood you don't expect your blood back if she that blood is not useful to her if she does not need the blood eventually it goes to the blood bank and it does something good by replenishing your blood so it shouldn't be anything of controversy saying that they collected my blood I want money for it why did I do that? but something has changed recently you don't have to donate blood if you are going for maternity you don't have to get your spouse or family to donate blood these days that's why we are trying to encourage people to donate blood it costs nothing the fact is that it's good for you when you donate blood you become more healthy I donated two Saturdays and I feel better you don't have enough I had enough but I was just on the borderline but I still donated but usually I have more than enough most of us do carry more than enough blood around we carry it around and it costs us nothing to just get one or two pricks of the needle and save lives because once you donate blood you can save about three lives with just one pint of blood you can save about three lives so it's a good thing so the Nigerian factor sorry Jennifer because we don't want to talk about this conversation and say another misconception because they believe in juju so much it's just like someone asked me my placenta I said wait I don't understand I should carry the placenta because these are small small things we mystify a lot of things a lot in the country now I use my blood for jazz now I use my dis and all of that so how is that impacting the blood drive impacting all those myths all those beliefs and it is really because a lot of people think that the blood apart from being sold without them getting money from it they think that blood is being used for rituals and it's sad that at this age I can't blame a lot of people we can always think about that that's why I said that whenever you want to donate blood make sure it is a well-organized government facility nobody will take your blood anyway because it's going to be registered I don't know how they use blood for rituals I don't know but those that believe they do they have a reason to believe so but when it comes to blood donation she just forget that that blood is safe and they just have that mind that it's going to someone and it's going to save someone's life somewhere I don't know if there are any adverse effects in giving blood okay I think the benefits are way outweigh the adverse effects the adverse effect is just the dizziness yes, if you don't have enough and you donate that's one then so if you donate too frequently before you replenish you're going to feel weak and sick so these are basically the adverse effects but giving blood I don't think there's any physiological challenges coming unless you're not being tested properly before you donate blood and if you have people with IM, IBP you can't donate blood diabetic, UVR you can't donate blood some other illnesses you won't be allowed to donate blood so it's way more positive so what precautions or aftercare does one need to take into consideration after donating blood? let's say Jennifer won't go donate she's acting for a long time she's acting for a long time I like I like where you're going it's all instinct like the audience so precautions like I mentioned sleep well don't drink or smoke no she's even aftercare aftercare, same thing take a lot of water as a matter of fact after donating you can't just stand up immediately you have to sit for like say 15-20 minutes and you'll be given water to drink so you need to go up down like a bottle of around 5 CL of water before you get up then after then don't exercise no strainers exercise you don't have to go to the gym for like 2 or 3 days and just eat well don't starve yourself I think that's basically the thing you need to do for 2 days or 2 or 3 days eat well I hear you when you say eat well but really to replenish blood is pretty simple, just eat a lot of vegetables anything that's iron in it just eat it all you don't need to go very far away from your diet but how has it been for you since the organization started I just want to touch a little bit on what you do with sickle cell because I saw sickle cell in your bio what you do because that one is there to my heart so blood donation and sickle cell are very related as a matter of fact I started my advocacy from sickle cell right and a lot of sickle cell patients need blood most of the time because they become anemic they lose a lot of blood and it needs to be replenished so the advocacy started from sickle cell then it moved to blood donation for everybody so I came across sickle cell in 2017 to 2018 in Abuja and since then even though I have family members who are also warriors so it's very related so most of the blood units that we donate cost to a lot of sickle cell patients apart from accident victims or cancer patients because sometimes sickle cell patients could get as much as 3-4 pints at a time and over the course of 6 months maybe every month some patients could need that much of blood so a lot of blood stock goes to sickle cell patients so let me just touch on that a bit because I said sickle cell is there to my heart because I have someone I mean imagine if you are carrying pregnancy and you are carrying two children and you now have your blood dropping all the way to like 4% the average is usually much more than that but you know a standard sickle cell patients when their blood is around 8-9% they are good so that's their standard average so when you don't have that person dropping blood but I realized that the hospitals are broad they try to shy away from blood transfusion they shy away from blood transfusion because I still there is still this study that shows that it is still best that the blood is regenerated by itself from the from the inside sometimes people reject blood my sister in law the entire blood that we gave we saw it on the bed I don't know the story for another day but I am saying that how conscious are our hospitals when it comes to the decision for blood transfusion are there also things that you are doing in that regard because blood transfusion usually is supposed to be like the last result it's not something that you just maybe have immediately say you want to do blood transfusion so how conscious are the hospitals in that regard for the hospitals they try because for hematologists after taking doing the proper tests they know that usually blood transfusion is the last result for sickle cell patients the last result so they do their job very well to ensure that this person don't just get blood because we are talking about blood safety all the time that someone needs blood unless that person is on the red line and you know that the last thing to do is just to give the person blood so they are that conscious of that because me and you heal right so you have a comment life changing life changing is not about giving out clothes or money to me before you say you changed someone's life and that value to the person's life I mean show a person how to catch fish is better than giving the person fish absolutely and that's my principle when it comes to giving of material especially money I rather give you a job than give you money because with a job you can generate money that's why the culture of begging does not sit well with me I really can't see a beggar on the street and just think I need to give him money you can be collecting a monthly income it makes sense to me okay so I mean if you had something to say to anyone out there that is still struggling you know that is still finding it difficult to give blood what would you say to that person yeah for me what I would say is that first of all see giving blood as something of self gratification it's something that comes from from the art you are doing something good for someone out there so that's the first thing you should think about okay you are saving lives so that's the first thing when that sits well into your art you won't look at all these meats you won't look at the pain you might go through while donating blood so it becomes a culture it becomes a part of you that without doing that you won't feel okay so once you are due to donate blood you rush up to the centre and give blood so forget the meat like I have said your blood is not being used for ritual it's not being sold to make excessive income there's a reason why you buy blood at the blood facilities and see it as something good for humanity Jennifer will you give blood yeah I will it's not something that has really been impressed in my heart to say oh yeah I won't do this I'm sure if the opportunity arises it's something that I wouldn't mind I wouldn't mind I'm very open as far as it's an organisation that is clean right and I'm going to be well taken care of and all of that and it's going to be used for the right purpose I'm good they will give her more hahaha oh yeah like I said I've done it before a couple of years ago and yes when he mentioned that they give out blood on their birthdays your birthday is coming I'm like should I give birth yes yes the facility is running every month so somebody can just come in every day on your birthday just walk into my birthday don't pass my birthday you don't have to you don't have to be on your birthday so we organise quarterly blood drives get people to come and donate blood at the facility hopefully one is coming up in December you better say the dates we've not finalised it's in Lagos so let's let's tell our viewers you can find your way but is it only Baghdad there's a centre in VI there's a centre in Leki there's centres Lagos Island Matane to your Lagos Island oh government yes you could donate there you could donate like I said Baghdad you could go to Aghege government facilities government facilities Lagos State government facilities it's safer to donate at those even in Ikeja when you go to Ikeja last suit Lagos State University teaching hospital just walk up to the blood bank and you can walk in and just tell them you want to donate blood so you can do that we are not only advocating for Lagos State so we have the national blood transmission service everywhere in Nigeria so you could just check them up online and look for the centre somewhere in Ibadu we have centres in Abuja as well all over Nigeria places where you could go to so what would be what would support look like for you is it non-governmental something we need money to survive so if somebody was looking at you today and they say you know what I want to support this initiative what would that support outside of donating the blood itself what would support look like for you to say ok this person is really coming to help me we need finance we need money to run the organisation we need of course media support just like what we are getting right now to push out our advocacy and our message but the major thing is actually money because for our volunteers sometimes we need to pay them for maybe t-fair we need to provide refreshments for blood drives and we need to because we also organise road shows media campaigns all these things require money basically money is the major thing because I was thinking about it is it non-for-profit what would support look like there are so many things like you rightly said there will be road shows there will be campaigns but you guys are not involved in the what is it called the process of purifying do you pay them to do or they just collect the blood and that's it they just collect the blood and they will not take it off from there that's amazing honestly I wish more people to do this I'll try to come and donate blood because I don't think I've donated blood since after that time nobody has called me that they need blood so my own is not a voluntary donor it is on a need base on a need base so now that I've heard let me not do like I did not hear so I will be the first example because maybe there's more bloodness that's what I'm adding to it yes I want to donate regularly I donate every month I donate too much they don't want that they want you to be a responsible donor no no no I said three times a year I heard him very well therefore the guys you said four times a year those are every quarter because of our monthly that makes sense that works thank you so much I think we had a fantastic conversation I'm looking forward to the December event so hopefully we'll bring you back to tell us more about the what's it called we are all about anything that would give humans better life and better living and this is a fantastic initiative not many people would dedicate their lives and their time to things like this it's an important thing they are doing for every time you hear that somebody is probably just got involved in an accident definitely all of those things should come to to play a woman that is having complications at birth somebody that is just sick or anemic so it's a fantastic initiative thank you so much we had fun Jennifer and if there are three of us her birthday is let me announce your birthday my birthday was last week's Saturday Jennifer we will all come to come and donate I think we should come and donate we are looking forward to seeing you there come and donate thank you so much hello noisemakers before we go I'm sure you follow us across all social media handles and we issue Africa you can interact with us further drop a comment and most importantly follow all our engagements on social media like share and invite your families and friends to watch and follow the conversation now if you missed our quote from mother Teresa herself it's not how much we give but how much love we put into giving and the truth is for you to give out blood that is the highest level of love you can show to anyone right so let's let's show love let's donate and I mean look for the centers that Said had mentioned we'll see you guys tomorrow at 8 p.m. we'll bring another great conversation to your screen