'Red Journey' campaign expects to collect 17,000 units of blood

The National Hematology and Blood Transfusion Institute on July 3 launched the 2015 ‘Red Journey’ – a transnational blood donation campaign – in Ho Chi Minh City, expected to receive 17,000 blood units.

Students of the People's Police Academy donate blood in response to the 2013 Red Journey campaign (Photo: hvcsnd.edu.vn)

The campaign will tour 22 cities and provinces across the country with two groups. The first group will start their journey on July 5 in Ca Mau province, heading to 13 cities and province in the south and central regions.

Meanwhile, the sending off ceremony for the second group will take place on July 11 in Vinh Phuc province before they travel to nine cities and provinces across the northern region.

The two groups will gather together in Hanoi on July 23 and jointly hold activities there until July 25.

The campaign has the participation of 120 volunteers and will receive support from 150,000 others at its stops.

The campaign is being held to encourage voluntary blood donations in localities in order to collect more units of blood for treatment of blood diseases.

It also targets to train local blood transfusion centres to organise large-scale blood donation events in their localities while raising public awareness of congenital hemolytic disorders.

According to Director of the National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion Nguyen Anh Tri, over its two previous campaigns, the programme has called on more than 50,000 people to donate blood with over 28,400 blood units collected.

(Source: nhandan.org.vn)