Give freely, give often. Blood donation matters

Every year on 14 June, countries around the world celebrate World Blood Donor Day (WBDD). The event, established in 2004, serves to raise awareness of the need for safe blood and blood products, and to thank blood donors for their voluntary, life-saving gifts of blood.

World Blood Donor Day is one of eight official global public health campaigns marked by the World Health Organization (WHO), along with World Health Day, World Tuberculosis Day, World Immunization Week, World Malaria Day, World No Tobacco Day, World Hepatitis Day, and World AIDS Day

World Blood Donor Day Theme 2015

Theme 2015 : Thank Your for Saving my Life

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 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.

World Blood Donor Day Theme

The theme of 2015 would be “Thank you for saving my life”.
The theme of 2014 was “Safe blood for saving mothers”.
The theme of 2013 was “Give the gift of life: Donate blood.”
The theme of 2012 was “Every blood donor is a hero”.
The theme of 2011 was “More blood, more life”.
The theme of 2010 was “New Blood for the World”.
The theme of 2009 was “achieving 100 per cent non-remunerated donation of blood and blood components”.
The theme of 2008 was “Giving blood regularly”.
The theme of 2007 was “Safe Blood for Safe Motherhood”.
The theme of 2006 was “Commitment to Ensure Universal Access to Safe Blood”.
The theme of 2005 was “Celebrating your gift of blood”.
The theme of 2004 was “Blood Saves Lives. Safe Blood Starts With Me”.

History

It was first initiated and established to be celebrated annually on 14th of June by “the World Health Organization, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies” in the year 2004. World Blood Donor Day was officially established by the WHO with its 192 Member States in the month of May in 2005 at the 58th World Health Assembly in order to motivate all the countries worldwide to thank the blood donors for their precious step, promote voluntary, safe and unpaid blood donations to ensure the sufficient blood supplies.
World Blood Donor Day celebration brings a precious opportunity to all donors for celebrating it on national and global level as well as to commemorate the birthday anniversary of the Karl Landsteiner (a great scientist who won the Nobel Prize for his great discovery of the ABO blood group system).
Every year, on 14 June, countries around the world celebrate World Blood Donor Day. The event raises awareness of the need for safe blood and blood products and to thank voluntary unpaid blood donors for their life-saving gifts of blood.

Every day, about 800 women die from pregnancy or childbirth-related complications. Almost all of these deaths occur in developing countries. More than half of them occur in sub-Saharan Africa and almost one third in South Asia. The risk of maternal mortality is highest for adolescent girls under 15 years of age.

Severe bleeding during delivery and after childbirth is a major cause of mortality, morbidity and long-term disability. However, access to safe and sufficient blood and blood products and the rational and safe use of blood transfusion still remain major challenges in many countries around the world.

World Blood Donor Day Quotes

“I’ve been involved with blood donation since the 1980s because there is a critical need”. – Donna Reed
“I owe my life to blood donors. I’m forever grateful to people who donate”. – Niki Taylor

“My goal is to spread the word about the need for more blood donors”. – Niki Taylor

Three things to do with donated blood

The complete ‘product’ of blood donation is whole blood. This is not used often in treatment – except to treat catastrophic blood loss – but is instead separated into different products. (Source: British Red Cross)

Red blood cells

These are used in the treatment of all kinds of anaemia which can’t be medically corrected, such as when rheumatoid arthritis or cancer is involved, when red cells break down in the newborn and for sickle cell disease.

They’re also essential to replace lost red cells due to blood loss in accidents, surgery and after childbirth.

Platelets

Platelets can be used in bone marrow failure, post transplant and chemotherapy treatments, and leukaemia. Platelets can be of huge benefit to the recipient.

Plasma

Fresh frozen plasma is used after obstetric loss of blood (which is usually childbirth), during cardiac surgery, and to reverse any anti-coagulant treatment.

It’s also used to replace clotting factors after massive transfusions or when they are not being sufficiently produced, such as liver disease.

And then there’s processed plasma, which has several important uses.

For instance, it is used in the treatment of haemophilia and for treating sufferers of Christmas disease, a life-threatening form of haemophilia.

Processed plasma is also used to help produce stronger antibodies against diseases like tetanus, hepatitis, chickenpox and rabies.

It also helps generate anti-D, which is used for RhD negative pregnant women carrying RhD positive babies.

Additionally there is a protein called albumin contained in plasma, which is extremely beneficial for burn victims.

Why World Blood Donor Day is Celebrated?

WBDD is sponsored by four core agencies that work together to promote voluntary blood donation:

the World Health Organization (WHO)

the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)

the International Federation of Blood Donor Organizations

the International Society of Blood Transfusion

World Blood Donor Day is celebrated to fulfill the need of blood transfusion and blood products transfusion to the needed person anywhere in the world. This campaign saves more than millions of lives annually and gives a natural smile on the face of blood receiver. Blood transfusion helps patients suffering from variety of life-threatening health conditions and stimulates them to live longer and quality life. It solves the lots of complex medical and surgical procedures all around the world. This campaign plays a great life-saving role for caring the women during pre and post pregnancy.
The celebration of World Blood Donor Day 2013 was hosted by the France “through its national blood service, the Establishment Français du Sang (EFS)”. France is involved in the promotion act of voluntary and unpaid blood donation since 1950s. The slogan of the year 2013 celebration was “Give the gift of life: donate blood” when it has celebrated its 10th anniversary focusing the value of blood donation to the patient.
Donated blood are used to save lives of severely anemic women, anemic kids, accident victims having excess blood loss, surgical patients, cancerous patients, thalassemia patients, people suffering from the hemophilia, sickle cell anemia, blood disorders, blood clotting disorders and many more.
Places devoid of an adequate blood supply face many life-threatening challenges during the arrangement of sufficient blood for the proper donation. Adequate supply of blood and its products can only be fulfilled by the regular and safe donations by the self motivated, voluntary and unpaid blood donors. Some of the objectives of the World Blood Donor Day celebration are mentioned below:

World Blood Donor day speech essay pdf

World Health Organization is aimed to obtain the sufficient blood supplies from the voluntary and unpaid blood donors all over the world by 2020.
According to the statistics, it has been noted that only 62 countries are getting sufficient blood supplies from the voluntary and unpaid blood donors whereas 40 countries are still dependent for the blood donations on the patient’s family member or paid donors. It is celebrated to motivate voluntary blood donors in rest of the countries worldwide.
To make the blood donation act a precious gift to the receivers and get new life.
WHO run this campaign by organizing many activities in all countries highlighting people’s stories who need immediate blood donation to continue their heart beat.
It is celebrated to say lots of thank to the voluntary and unpaid blood donors all around the world for saving millions of lives.
It is celebrated to fulfill the 100% voluntary and unpaid blood donation need worldwide.
It is celebrated to motivate blood donors for safe blood donation for saving the life of mothers and babies (country’s future).
It is celebrated to reduce the death rates (mortality rate) because of insufficient blood supply. Approximately 800 women are dying off due to malnourish pregnancy, childbirth-related complications, severe bleeding during or after delivery and etc.
To motivate voluntary blood donors through educational programmes and campaigns in order to strengthen the blood transfusion services.

World Blood Donor Day Theme Logo Poster 2015 History Quotes

How World Blood Donor Day is Celebrated?

World Blood Donor Day is celebrated annually to aware people for the need of safe blood transfusion as well as importance of blood donation throughout the world. The celebration involves organizing lots of activities and programs on international and national level.
Health care organizations like “the World Health Organization, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the International Federation of Blood Donor Organizations (IFBDO) and the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT)” work jointly to organize international level programs to promote people globally.
Campaign celebration preparations are carried out by the Council of Europe for many years. The demand of safe blood transfusion is increasing day by day in spite of the blood donation by almost 92 million people every year worldwide. Activities involves organizing commemorative events, meetings, discussion, debates, quiz competitions, publishing relevant stories in newspapers, scientific conferences, publishing articles worldwide, international scientific journals, sports activities and other promotional activities in the public places, schools, colleges, universities and other educational institutions.

Last year

Safe blood for saving mothers

The focus for this year’s campaign is “Safe blood for saving mothers”. The campaign will increase awareness about why timely access to safe blood and blood products is essential for all countries as part of a comprehensive approach to prevent maternal deaths.

WHO encourages all countries and national and international partners working on blood transfusion and maternal health to develop an activity plan to highlight the need for timely access to safe blood and blood products in the prevention of maternal deaths.

Ministries of health, particularly in countries with high rates of maternal mortality, to take concrete steps towards ensuring that health facilities in their countries improve access to safe blood and blood products from volunteer donors for women giving birth.
National blood services in countries with high rates of maternal mortality to focus on safe blood for mothers in their activities and products for the 2014 campaign.
Maternal health programmes and partnerships engage in the 2014 campaign.
WHO and partners throughout the world highlight how safe blood from voluntary donors can save women’s lives everywhere.

Originally posted 2015-06-12 10:00:54.