Volunteers at the blood donation festival (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – The annual blood donation campaign Red Journey 2016 wrapped up in Hanoi on July 31.
Speaking at the event, Politburo member and Chairwoman of the Party Central Committee’s Mass Mobilisation Commission Truong Thi Mai said that the campaign brought hope for millions of patients nationwide.
Hailing the volunteers’ efforts, Mai expressed her hope that the campaign will receive more public support soon.
She added that the campaign has become an important event, contributing to social security and giving youths and students a chance to do some good to people during summer.
A total of 130 volunteers joined the 31-day drive, organised by the National Institute of Haematology and Blood Transfusion, the Nhan Ai Vong Tay Viet Joint Stock Company and VTV News Centre.
They toured 27 cities and provinces nationwide to provide advice on blood donation and thalassemia, a genetic blood disease, to 500,000 local people and collected 20,790 units of blood.
Since its inception in 2013, the campaign has been held in almost all cities and provinces across the country and gathered nearly 80,000 units of blood.
Vietnam collected 1.15 million units of blood in 2015, surpassing the year’s target figure by 17.8 percent and up 9.7 percent from 2014.
However, blood shortages, particularly blood type A and O, often occurred in summer and prior to the Lunar New Year. The repetition rate of donations was just above 40 percent, compared to between 60 and 70 percent in Japan, Singapore and Australia.-VNA
