During the 31-day campaign, 130 outstanding volunteers will travel through 27 provinces and cities nationwide to collect blood and strengthen the message about the importance of donating blood.
They will also call upon the public to donate blood, in a bid to ease current blood shortages at hospitals and raise community awareness about thalassaemia – a genetic blood disorder that can lead to heart failure and liver problems.
The organisation expects to collect 50,000 units of donated blood during the month-long campaign, including 20,000 units in 27 provinces and cities, which will be visited by volunteers.
“The Red Journey is an important milestone in the development of the country’s voluntarily blood donation movement, contributing to reach the goal that all of its blood will be donated by voluntary donors by 2020,” said NIHBT director Nguyễn Anh Trí.
“Since the first Red Journey in 2013, thousands of patients’ lives have been saved due to the nearly 57,000 blood units collected during the past three years,” said Trí.
Blood shortages during the summer season have been largely eliminated, and the National Institute of Haematology and Blood Transfusion is now able to ensure proper blood supplies are available for emergency aid and treatment at hospitals during the summer months, thanks to the blood collected during the Red Journey campaigns, according to Trí.
Last year, the health sector collected more than 1.1 million units of blood, 90 per cent of which came from voluntary donors, while 10 per cent was collected from people who sold their blood for money.
Further, officials have set a target to collect 1.2 million units of blood from voluntary donors in 2016.
