World Blood Donor Day 2019 “safe blood for all”

14 June 2019 World Blood Donor Day (WBBD)

Every year on the 14th of June are celebrated voluntary and non-remunerated blood donors, through the World Health Organisation (WHO) World Blood Donor Day.

The event is to thank blood donors, raise awareness about the importance of blood donations, and the need for regular donations, to ensure the quality, safety and availability of blood and blood products for patients.

(source WHO)
The theme of this year’s campaign is blood donation and universal access to safe blood transfusion, as a component of achieving universal health coverage. We have developed the slogan “Safe blood for all” to raise awareness of the universal need for safe blood in the delivery of health care and the crucial roles that voluntary donations play in achieving the goal of universal health coverage.  The theme strongly encourages more people all over the world to become blood donors and donate blood regularly – actions which are key to building a strong foundation of sustainable national blood supplies that are sufficient to meeting the needs of all patients requiring transfusion.

The day and the theme is also a call to action to all governments, national health authorities and national blood services to provide adequate resources and put in place systems and infrastructures to increase collection of blood from voluntary, regular unpaid blood donors; to provide quality donor care; to promote and implement appropriate clinical use of blood, and to set up systems for the oversight and surveillance on the whole chain of blood transfusion.

Examples of action

On the this occasion the Belgian Red Cross – Flanders not only thanked their donors via posters, videos and social-media but also launched their summer recruitment campaign and held a big blood drive at the rock festival Werchter.

The French Etablissement Français du Sang (EFS) started its campaign “#Take the relay, 1 month to give all!” EFS partners with the media Group M6 whose presenters and celebrities invit viewers to be the ambassadors of the blood donation from June 11th to July 13th, 2019. The EFS developped a number of videos to showcase the importance of donation, together with M6 personalites and members of the EF