It is my pleasure to join you, once again, to celebrate the World Blood Donor Day, today, 14 June 2010. The celebration this year focuses on Young Blood Donors, with the slogan “New Blood for the World”. This theme emphasizes the critical role that the youth play in supporting government efforts to ensure availability of safe blood for patients in need.
The future of every nation depends on the capacity of its youth to take over from the older generations, the responsibility to sustain, strengthen and improve interventions for a better and healthier life for its population. In this context, it is of paramount importance to recruit and retain young voluntary non-remunerated blood donors, with the hope that this new generation of enthusiastic and motivated blood donors will form a pool that provides the safest possible blood for use in health facilities wherever and whenever it is needed. This is intended to save the lives of patients suffering from severe anaemia or bleeding, which pose a major public health problem mainly in children under five years of age and in young mothers in our Region.
Blood donor recruitment is a dynamic process because donors either retire at the stipulated age or stop donating blood for various reasons. In order to maintain and improve present achievements and ensure a sustainable and safe blood supply, there is need to recruit and retain as many young blood donors as possible. Furthermore, regular blood donation promotes safe and healthy lifestyles among the youth. I therefore encourage the youth to embrace this humanitarian call to save lives and to live healthy lifestyles.
Way back to 1989, a blood donor of school age suggested in Zimbabwe that it would be a noble idea for the youth to pledge to donate blood 25 times by their 25th birthday. This marked the birth of club 25 whose enormous success in ensuring a safe blood supply even in high-risk populations has made it one of the milestones in the history of blood transfusion. This success story originating from Africa was soon embraced by many countries within and outside the continent. It has now become a worldwide movement bringing together not only the safest blood donors pledging to donate blood but also people who have pledged to live healthy lifestyles. By engaging the youth in blood donation therefore, we bring ‘new blood’ to the world.
In the WHO African Region, out of an estimated average of 3.5 million units of blood collected every year, only 60% to 67% is collected from voluntary blood donors and less than 50% of countries have, so far, achieved the target of collecting at least 80% of blood from voluntary blood donors by 2012, as recommended in the Regional strategy for blood safety adopted in 2001 by ministers of health of countries of the WHO African Region.
Functional and effective Blood Transfusion Services are a vital component of any national health system, and their contribution to reducing maternal and child mortality have been well documented. Together, we should continue to support their activities through active participation in blood donation campaigns and implementation of proven strategies to increase the number of units of safe blood collected.
I urge all countries to continue to work hard to achieve 100% voluntary donation in our Region. The importance of the role of the Young Generation in blood donation cannot be over-emphasized. Among the youth, those that are unable to donate blood, for various reasons, are encouraged to provide voluntary services for advocacy and mobilization of their peers in general and the population in particular.
I wish to thank all blood donors for their generosity and particularly the youth for their commitment and support to regional and global efforts to make safe blood available in order to save as many lives as possible.
Last but not least, I would like to reaffirm the continuing commitment of the WHO African Region to providing the required technical support to countries to realize this noble objective.
May I wish you a successful commemoration of World Blood Donor Day 2010.
Thank you