World Blood Donor Day - 14 June 2022

World Blood Donor Day takes place on 14 June each year. The Day was created to a) raise global awareness of the need for safe blood and blood products for transfusionñ b) highlight the critical contribution voluntary, unpaid blood donors make to national health systemsñ, and c) support national blood transfusion services, blood donor organizations, and other non-governmental organizations in strengthening and expanding their voluntary blood donor programs by reinforcing national and local campaigns.

The day also provides an opportunity to call to action governments and national health authorities to provide adequate resources to increase the collection of blood from voluntary, unpaid blood donors and to manage access to blood and the transfusion of those who require it.

To ensure that everyone who needs transfusion has access to safe blood, all countries need voluntary, unpaid blood donors who give blood regularly. An effective blood donor program, characterized by the broad and active participation of the population, is crucial in meeting the need for blood transfusion during peacetime as well as during emergencies or disasters when there is a surge in demand for blood or when the regular operation of blood services is affected.

While an enabling social and cultural atmosphere with strong solidarity facilitates the development of an effective blood donor program, it is also widely acknowledged that the act of blood donation contributes to generating social ties and building a united community.

HOST FOR WORLD BLOOD DONOR DAY 2022 EVENTS

Mexico will host World Blood Donor Day 2022 through its National Blood Centre. The global event will be held in Mexico City on 14 June 2022.

FOCUS OF THIS YEAR’S CAMPAIGN

For 2022, the World Blood Donor Day slogan will be “Donating blood is an act of solidarity. Join the effort and save lives” to draw attention to the roles that voluntary blood donations play in saving lives and enhancing solidarity within communities.  
The specific objectives of this year’s campaign are to:

• thank blood donors in the world and create wider public awareness of the need for regular, unpaid blood donation; 

• highlight the need for committed, year-round blood donation to maintain adequate supplies and achieve universal and timely access to safe blood transfusion;

• recognize and promote the values of voluntary unpaid blood donation in enhancing community solidarity and social cohesion;

• raise awareness of the need for government investment to build a sustainable and resilient national blood system and increase collection from voluntary non-remunerated blood donors.

A particular activity that countries in the world are encouraged to implement for this year’s campaign is to disseminate to various media outlets stories of people whose lives have been saved through blood donation as a way of motivating regular blood donors to continue giving blood, and to motivate people in good health who have never given blood to begin doing so.

Other activities that would help promote the slogan of this year’s World Blood Donor Day may include donor appreciation ceremonies, social networking campaigns, special media broadcasts, social media posts showing featuring individual blood donors with the slogan, meetings and workshops, musical and artistic events to thank blood donors and celebrate solidarity, and coloring iconic monuments red.

Your involvement and support will help to ensure a greater impact for World Blood Donor Day 2022, increasing recognition worldwide that giving blood is a life-saving act of solidarity and that services providing safe blood and blood products are an essential element of every health care system. Participation of interested partners is welcome at all levels to make World Blood Donor Day 2022 a global success.