The awareness bus of the Oman Hereditary Blood Disorders Association was inaugurated in October 2018 under the patronage of His Excellency Dr. Mohammed bin Hamad Al Rumahi, Minister of Oil and Gas. The bus was funded by Occidental Oman in 2016. It was also designed, equipped, and supplied with the necessary equipment for educational lectures and individual meetings with the public displayed awareness videos via a screen installed inside the bus.
The bus is used as part of the Association’s awareness program to achieve its goals of raising community awareness through sending the association’s representatives to various governorates and regions of the Sultanate. The goal is to educate the local communities about the definition and awareness of hereditary blood disorders and the methods of reducing the possibilities of transmission of these disorders and to raise awareness of the necessity of planning healthy marriages by urging Premarital screening in addition to:
- Awareness of hereditary blood disorders with a schedule prepared by the administration of the Association in concert with the Charity Teams that work under the umbrella of the association. Nowadays, it includes the governorates of Muscat, North Al Batinah, South Al Batinah, Musandam, North Ash-Sharqiyyah, South Ash-Sharqiyyah, Ad Dakhiliyah, and they will be expanded later to other governorates soon as other teams are formed.
- Raising community awareness of the importance of premarital screening of those who are planning to get married in various governmental and private departments.
- Rising students’ awareness on various educational institutions, colleges, and universities about the nature of hereditary blood disorders and the importance of premarital screening for those who are planning to get married.
