Red Sunday blood donation drive launched

The 10th Red Sunday blood donation campaign officially kicked off in Hanoi on January 21.

This year’s campaign is jointly held by the Tien Phong (Vanguard) Newspaper, the National Steering Committee for Traffic Safety and the National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion.

The annual blood donation drive has been launched from December 2017 until the end of January 2018 in 31 localities nationwide with more than 60 donation places, aiming to deal with blood shortage in the upcoming Lunar New Year festival.

Many people voluntarily donate their blood at the Red Sun Festival. (Credit: NDO)

As of January 15, the programme was responded by 19 localities with 23,392 blood units gathered, reaching 67% of the programme’s target of 35,000 blood units for 2018.

Speaking at the event, Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh called on management officials, agencies, organisations, and businesses to join in encouraging more people to donate blood to help hospitals ease the chronic shortage.

Deputy PM Binh, who is also head of the National Steering Committee for Traffic Safety, noted that acute blood scarcity has still happened, especially during holidays and festivals, putting a lot of pressure on the healthcare sector.

He lauded the holding of the Red Sunday as it enables tens of thousands of patients to have chances of survival and unite with their families during the upcoming traditional New Year festival.

Last year, more than 1.2 million blood units were gathered, meeting more than 70% of blood need for the needy, he noted.

He said he is moved by many people who donate their blood many times and encourage others to follow suit. He also praised agencies, organisations and volunteers for persuading the community to actively give blood.

(Source: NDO)