World Blood Donor Day provides a springboard for blood safety programmes and campaigns throughout the year, as well as wider activities to strengthen blood transfusion services. It is designed to complement rather than replace the national blood donor days or weeks that are organized in a number of countries. Some are held at the same time as World Blood Donor Day, while others take place at different times of the year.
The theme of the 2016 World Blood Donor Day, 14 June, campaign is "Blood connects us all". It focuses on thanking blood donors and highlights the dimension of “sharing” and “connection” between blood donors and patients. The campaign aims to highlight stories of people whose lives have been saved through blood donation, as a way of motivating regular blood donors to continue giving blood, and to encourage people in good health who have never given blood to begin doing so, particularly young people.
The slogan for the 2016 campaign is “Share life, give blood”, to draw attention to the roles that voluntary donation systems play in encouraging people to care for one another and promote community cohesion.
Campaign Objectives
The objectives of this year’s campaign are:
- to thank blood donors for their life-saving gift of blood and highlight the theme of blood connecting us all;
- to create wider public awareness of the need for regular, unpaid blood donation, and inspire those who have not yet donated blood to start donating, particularly young people who are in good health;
- to promote and highlight the need to share life by donating blood;
- to focus attention on blood services as a community service, and the importance of community participation for a sufficient, safe and sustainable blood supply; and
- to persuade ministries of health to show their appreciation to regular voluntary unpaid donors and commit to self-sufficiency in safe blood and blood products based on 100% voluntary, unpaid donations.
The safe 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 better quality of life, as well as supporting complex medical and surgical procedures. It also has an essential, life-saving role in maternal and child care and in the event of man-made and natural disasters. However, in many countries, demand far exceeds supply and blood services face the constant challenge of making sufficient blood available, while also ensuring its quality and safety.
In 2016, more than 40 years after the first World Health Assembly resolution (WHA28.72) addressed the issue of blood safety, equitable access to safe blood and blood products and the rational and safe use of blood transfusion, there still remain major challenges throughout the world; and many patients requiring transfusion do not have timely access to safe blood. An adequate supply can only be ensured through regular donations by voluntary unpaid blood donors. However, today, only 62 countries get close to 100% of their national blood needs through voluntary unpaid blood donations, with 40 countries still dependent on family donors and even paid donors. WHO has been providing support to Member States to strengthen service delivery and safety and improve access to safe blood and blood products for patients in need.
Videos
Blood connects us all - the hero in the park
Blood connects us all - the hero on the street
