14 June 2015 -- The theme of this year’s
campaign is "Thank you for saving my life". It focuses on thanking
blood donors who save lives every day through their blood donations and
strongly encourages more people all over the world to donate blood voluntarily
and regularly with the slogan “Give freely, give often. Blood donation
matters.” The campaign aims to highlight stories from people whose lives have
been saved through blood donation, as a way of motivating regular blood donors
to continue giving blood and people in good health who have never given blood
to begin doing so.
The
theme of this year’s campaign is "Thank you for saving my life".
It
focuses on thanking blood donors who save lives every day through their blood
donations and strongly encourages more people all over the world to donate
blood voluntarily and regularly with the slogan “Give freely, give often. Blood
donation matters.”
The
campaign aims to highlight stories from people whose lives have been saved
through blood donation, as a way of motivating regular blood donors to continue
giving blood and people in good health who have never given blood, particularly
young people, to begin doing so.
Activities
may include commemorative events, meetings, publication / dissemination of
relevant stories on media outlets, scientific conferences, publication of
articles on national, regional and international scientific journals, and other
activities that would help in promoting the theme of this year’s World Blood
Donor Day (WBDD).
The objectives of this year’s campaign are to:
- thank blood donors for their life-saving donations;
- promote regular voluntary unpaid blood donation;
- create wider public awareness of the need for regular donation because of the short shelf-life of blood components and to encourage existing and potential donors to donate blood at regular intervals
- focus attention on donor health and the quality of donor care as critical factors in building donor commitment and a willingness to donate regularly; and
- persuade ministries of health to show their appreciation of regular voluntary unpaid donors and provide adequate resources to provide quality donor care.
Host for World Blood Donor Day events - China
The
host country for World Blood Donor Day 2015 is China through its blood center
in Shanghai, Shanghai Blood Centre (SBC), also the WHO Collaborating Center for
Blood Transfusion Services.
Background information
Every
year, on 14 June, countries around the world celebrate World Blood Donor Day.
The event serves to thank voluntary unpaid blood donors for their life-saving
gifts of blood and to raise awareness of the need for regular blood donations
to ensure quality, safety and availability of blood and blood products for
patients in need.
Transfusion
of blood and blood products helps save millions of lives every year. It can
help patients suffering from life-threatening conditions live longer and with
higher quality of life, and supports complex medical and surgical procedures.
It also has an essential, life-saving role in maternal and child care and
during man-made and natural disasters.
However,
in many countries, demand exceeds supply, and blood services face the challenge
of making sufficient blood available, while also ensuring its quality and
safety. An adequate supply can only be assured through regular donations by
voluntary unpaid blood donors. WHO’s goal is for all countries to obtain all
their blood supplies from voluntary unpaid donors by 2020.
Today,
in just 62 countries, national blood supplies are based on close to 100%
voluntary unpaid blood donations, with 40 countries still dependent on family
donors and even paid donors.
