All-Russian “Donor Saturday” has taken place in our country since 2009 as part of the communication campaign of the Blood Service Promotion Program implemented by the Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Russian Federation and FMBA of Russia.
The main task of the campaign is to give the opportunity to donate blood to people who cannot do it on weekdays. In 2011, the “Donor Saturday” became federally significant. Doors of blood transfusion stations and mobile blood complexes were opened on this summer weekend day in all 83 subjects of the Russian Federation.
The greatest number of donors came to the blood transfusion stations in the Stavropol and Krasnoyarsk Territories, Nizhny Novgorod, Orenburg, Chelyabinsk, Voronezh, Moscow and Volgograd Regions, in the Chechen Republic and the Republic of Bashkortostan.
The campaign once again reminded people how important it is to donate blood and how many people need it. On 6 August “Donor Saturday” was accompanied by various events all over Russia. There, where mobile blood complexes were installed, volunteers were telling about the importance and benefits of blood donation, helping those who come to the station for the first time. On this day information displays were also deployed providing important and interesting facts about blood donation. Honorary donors were awarded in many cities around the country. Socially responsible federal and regional media actively supported the campaign with announcements, articles and stories.
Despite the fact that the event is held for the third year, the opportunity to donate blood on the day off attracts to the ranks of blood donors new people of different ages and occupations. For example, in Kaliningrad, on August 6 participants of “Baltic Artek” (international camp on the shores of the Baltic Sea) donated blood and in Yekaterinburg on that day members of football club “Ural” became donors. Team mascot - orange-black bumblebee - welcomed all the participants of the donor campaign at the door of the mobile blood complex, which was deployed in the city center.
During the first week of August preceding the Donor Saturday, the number of calls to the Blood Service free “hotline” (8-800-333-3330) increase almost 5-fold. Potential donors asked where the nearest blood transfusion station is located, its working hours, specified how they to prepare for blood donation and what the contraindications to donation are.
During the three years of the campaign in many cities of the country working Saturdays at the blood transfusion stations have become a good tradition not only in summer, but throughout the year.
