On the occasion of ‘World Blood Donor Day’ (June 14th, 2008) Indian Red Cross would be thanking its donors by felicitating them. The Blood Bank at NHQ, IRCS is observing the day by organizing a seminar on the theme ‘Donate blood regularly’ at Disaster Management Center, IRCS. Dr. Salim J. Habayab, Representative-India, World Health Organization would be the chief guest for the occasion. Officials from International Federation, Red Cross National Societies from America, Britain, Canada, Spain, Germany and Delhi State AIDS Control Society would also be joining the event. Alongwith this there will be a mass awareness campaign on motivating people to donate blood. This would be done by distributing pamphlets at petrol pumps, posters would be put up across the city

and blood donation camps would be organized. Talks with the regular blood donors would also be aired on the All India Radio during the week.

‘Every moment, someone in the world needs a blood transfusion to survive. This is a challenge for us and we could overcome it only when we continue the practice of motivating people to come forward to donate blood and retain our regular donors by felicitating and recognizing them’ says Prof (Dr). S.P. Agarwal, Secretary General, IRCS. He further said that the World Blood Donor Day provides an opportunity for blood transfusion services to evaluate the effectiveness of their donor care programmes and involve blood donors themselves in identifying ways of increasing donor satisfaction and promoting donor loyalty.

The Blood bank at NHQ has prepared the roadmap of increasing the voluntary donation to 100% by targeting the corporate and college students in the age bracket of 18-35 years. It also proposes to observe the youth day on 12th August and motivate them to come forward and contribute their efforts in saving the life of others. Club 25, which is a youthful concept and is about members who are committed to retain a healthy lifestyle and who pledge to donate on agreed number of times, would also be formed. The objective is to increase the number of donors. atleast by 10,000 by December 2009

In Delhi, IRCS, Blood Bank is operational round the clock and collects nearly 30,000 units a year. It supports nearly 50% of thalassemic children with free supply of blood in the NCR territory. “The Blood bank at National Headquarter (NHQ) has achieved 88 percent of voluntary blood donation so far, which is likely to reach to 95 percent by the end of the year and 100 percent by 2009. This has happened due to the people who donate blood voluntarily by walking into the IRCS blood banks or at the blood donation camps” say blood donation organizers of the IRCS. Indian Red Cross with its 110 Blood Banks spread across 14 states is contributing to the tune of 10% demand of blood in the country.

The Indian Red Cross since 1962 has been active in the arena of blood services. It is running 110 blood banks across 14 States and contributes 10 percent of total collection of blood in India. Indian Red Cross (NHQ) plans to upgrade and expand its Blood Bank into a ‘state of the art’ blood transfusion service and to have training facilities of the highest standards, as per national guidelines. It also proposes to expand its number of blood banks in all the states and district branches and also to start blood storage centers in cooperation with National Rural Health Mission.