Hundreds of Vietnamese blood donors were honoured at a meeting in Hanoi on June 10, which was also held to mark ‘World Blood Donor Day’ which takes place on June 14 every year.
More than 100 voluntary donors, students and youth donate blood every year, and according to the Ministry of Health, some donors have even donated their blood 40-50 times.
For instance, Vu Ngoc Linh from Ho Chi Minh City donated blood 65 times and Kieu Thi Nhu Hoa in the southern province of Tay Ninh has given her blood 50 times. In one typical case, hundreds of members of several families of Ho in Luc Ngan District in the northern province of Bac Giang have collectively signed up to donate blood, in the hope of saving people’s lives.
Of late, hospitals have faced a severe shortage of blood and hence voluntary blood donation is an honourable act. Tran Ngoc Tan, chairman of Vietnam’s Red Cross said millions of Vietnamese people have volunteered to donate blood and therefore are worthy of being honoured as heroes.
On the same day, a festival titled “Join Hands with Community-Act to Save a Life” was organised in Hanoi where hundreds of youth and students from schools in Hanoi registered to donate blood. Hanoi Communist Youth Union and Youth Associations encouraged more young people to come forward and donate blood at the festival.
At the Festival, hundreds of young Hanoians’ will sign a commitment to willingly donate blood whenever local medical centres are in urgent need.
The theme of this year’s ‘World Blood Donor Day’ campaign is “Every Blood Donor is a Hero”, which focuses on the idea that every one of us can become a hero by voluntarily donating blood.
While acknowledging the unsung heroes who save lives every day through their noble act of donating blood voluntarily, the theme also strongly encourages more people all over the world to donate blood to save lives of fellow human beings.
Countries worldwide celebrate ‘World Blood Donor Day’ with events to raise awareness of the need to donate safe blood and to acknowledge the contributions of the unpaid, unsung blood donors who make this life-saving gift.
Currently, the world has more than 93 million blood volunteers who donate blood every year.
In Vietnam, 776,427 people donated blood in 2011, 80 per cent of whom donated for free. Despite increasing numbers of blood donors each year, the country still has a shortage of blood in its blood bank.
