The blood donation festival named "Compassionate heart" takes places in Hà Nội on Sunday. Photo nhandaoonline.vn

HÀ NỘI The Việt Nam Red Cross on Sunday held its annual blood donation festival in Hà Nội, hoping to collect 200 blood units as demand increases towards the end of the year.

The festival with the slogan "Joining hands for public health" attracted members of blood donation clubs under the Central Committee of the Việt Nam Red Cross as well as other volunteers.

Since January this year, over 1.2 million units of blood have been donated across the country at major voluntary blood donation campaigns and events such as Red Spring Festival, Red Sunday and National Voluntary Blood Donation Day on April 7.

The blood collected has saved hundreds of thousands of patients, contributing to protecting, caring for and improving public health. The whole country has developed thousands of voluntary blood donation clubs with hundreds of thousands of members such as reserve blood donation clubs, clubs of people with rare blood types, Club 25 and groups of family members.

Speaking at the festival, Nguyễn Hải Anh, vice chairman of the Central Committee of the Việt Nam Red Cross, recognised the contributions of the blood donors and asked the Red Cross member associations to maintain and develop the teams of blood donation volunteers who not only donate but also encourage others to make a donation to ensure blood for medical treatment and emergency during the coming Lunar New Year.

He asked for strengthening information technology applications in promoting voluntary blood donation, building a database of blood donors, repeat blood donors and people with rare blood types to connect with the national blood donation database.

The whole country currently has 181 blood donation clubs under the management of the Red Cross with over 4,100 members aged 18 to 25 in 10 provinces and cities including Bình Dương, Bình Định, Cà Mau, Đắc Lắk, Gia Lai, Kiên Giang, Long An, Phú Thọ, Quảng Nam and Vĩnh Long.

The clubs called for donations of on average about 1,000 blood units per year. After 14 years of establishment, Club 25 has mobilised over 15,000 units of blood for voluntary blood donation. VNS