PURPOSE: Every year on 14 June, countries around the world celebrate World Blood Donor Day. Blood donations are a lifeline in emergencies, disasters, humanitarian crises, and for people who need regular transfusions. And yet around the world, many communities do not have access to safe blood. Women and children are the most at risk. The event serves to raise awareness of the need for safe blood and blood products and to thank voluntary, unpaid blood donors for their life-saving gifts of blood.
FORUM: “20 years of celebrating giving: thank you blood donors!.” World Blood Donor Day 2024. This celebration is an excellent and timely opportunity to thank blood donors across the world for their life-saving donations over the years and honor the profound impact on both patients and donors. It is also a timely moment to address continued challenges, and accelerate progress towards a future where safe blood transfusion is universally accessible.
The objectives of the campaign is:
To thank and recognize the millions of voluntary blood donors who have contributed to the health and well-being of millions of people around the world.
To showcase the achievements and challenges of national blood programmes and share best practices and lessons learned.
To highlight the continuous need for regular, unpaid blood donation to achieve universal access to safe blood transfusion.
To promote a culture of regular blood donation among young people and the general public and increase the diversity and sustainability of the blood donor pool.
Follow the conversations with the hashtags: #GiveBlood, #GivePlasma, #14june, #WorldBloodDonorDay, #BloodDonations.
EVENTS: On June 14th, 2024, the WHO, its partners and communities across the world will unite behind the theme to mark the World Blood Donor Day 2024. This year, we will commemorate the milestone of the 20th anniversary and the profound impact of blood donation on the lives of patients and donors. The campaign serves as an opportunity to express gratitude to blood plasma, and platelet donors in the world for their lifesaving donations. Moreover, it calls for action, motivating more individuals to join the global movement of blood donation.
STATEMENTS: Read the Message from the WHO Director General on World Blood Donor Day 2024; June 14th, Message from Dr Jarbas Barbosa, Director of PAHO on World Blood Donor Day 2024 and the Message of the WHO Regional Director for Africa on World Blood Donor Day 2024; June 14th.
PODCASTS: Blood – the most precious gift. Safe blood saves lives. Regular blood donation by a sufficient number of healthy people is needed to ensure that blood will always be available whenever and wherever it is needed. Listen to the audio-podcasts!
CAMPAIGN MATERIALS: The need for blood is universal, but access to safe blood and safe blood products for all those who need it is not. Shortages of safe blood are particularly acute in many countries. With the slogan “20 years of celebrating giving: thank you blood donors!”, we prepared a poster; an action toolkit and some communication materials to promote the day. We intend to inform the public that the intention of Donating Blood is an Act of Solidarity. Get the campaign materials!
WHY WE CELEBRATE THE DAY?
We observe the World Blood Donor Day to draw attention to the roles that voluntary blood donations play in saving lives and enhancing solidarity within communities.
The specific objectives of this year’s campaign are to:
Celebrate and thank individuals who donate blood and encourage more people to become new donors;
Encourage people in good health to donate blood regularly, as often as is safe and possible, to transform the quality of life for transfusion dependent patients and help to build a secure blood supply in all countries in the world;
Highlight the critical roles of voluntary non-remunerated regular blood and plasma donations in achieving universal access to safe blood products for all populations; and
mobilize support at national, regional and global levels among governments and development partners to invest in, strengthen and sustain national blood programmes.
HOW TO GET INVOLVED!
Your involvement and support will help to ensure greater impact of the day by increasing recognition worldwide that giving blood is a life-saving act of solidarity and that services providing safe blood and blood products are an essential element of every health care system. A particular activity that countries in the world are encouraged to implement for this year’s campaign is to disseminate to various media outlets 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 motivate people in good health who have never given blood to begin doing so.
Other activities that would help promote the slogan of this year’s World Blood Donor Day may include donor appreciation ceremonies, social networking campaigns, special media broadcasts, social media posts featuring individual blood donors with the slogan, meetings and workshops, musical and artistic events to thank blood donors and celebrate solidarity, and colouring iconic monuments red.
PARTNERSHIPS
One of WHO strategies is to assist low- and middle-income countries in the world in improving the availability and quality of human plasma, including optimising the utilisation of the plasma recovered from whole blood donations, and increasing patients’ access to the life-saving plasma protein therapies.
The World Blood Donor Day is organized by WHO Regional Offices, the WHO African Region, the ,WHO Region of the Americas, the WHO South-East Asia Region, the WHO European Region and the WHO Western Pacific Region.
Other contributors National Blood Service (NBS); The Australian Red Cross Lifeblood; The Japanese Red Cross Society; The America’s Blood Centers; The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, The National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID), The NZ Blood Service The Singapore Red Cross (SRC); The Centro Nacional de la Transfusión Sanguínea and the Gavrilov Blood Centre of Moscow's Department of Health and many others.