Xuan Hong blood donation festival takes place in Hanoi

Students of People’s Security Academy donate blood at the Xuan Hong 2018 blood donation festival on Saturday in Hanoi.

Organised by the NIHBT and the Hanoi Steering Committee for Voluntarily Blood Donation Mobilisation, the year’s largest blood donation festival aims to collect at least 8,000 units of blood from 15,000 participants, mainly youth and students, from March 3 to 11.

“The annual festival has basically aimed to assist during the blood shortage for emergency aid and treatment at hospitals, as well as provide safe and sufficient blood for development of high medical techniques, such as organ transplants and cancer treatment, saving lives of patients with fatal diseases,” said Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Viet Tien on Saturday.

Tien also expressed his hope that humanitarian blood donations would be further expanded among each family, as well as the entire society in the coming years.

“The country experiences a blood supply shortage after the Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday due to the demand for blood being higher than our preserved amount,” said NIHBT director Bach Quoc Khanh .

“Red Spring festival remains the best way to handle the situation. We organised this year’s event in many places in the city over nine days to offer more opportunities for donors to donate blood and to increase the quality of healthcare for donors,” said Khanh.

Tran Minh Duc, a teacher, travelled more than 100 kilometres from Thai Nguyen Province to Hanoi to donate blood at the festival.

“I’m very excited to share my blood to help needy patients, and I’m very happy when I can do something useful,” said Duc.

Duc said that this is the 15th time he has donated blood since he was a student more than 10 years ago.

Duc said that he learned about the festival through his Facebook social network. He added that he will explain the benefits of voluntary blood donations with his students and friends to increase the community’s awareness about such humanitarian activities.

The festival organisation board said more than 60,300 units of blood were collected from 190,000 participants during ten Xuan Hong blood donation festivals, since the first festival was held in 2008. Last year, the festival received more than 9,300 units of blood, compared to 9,000 units during the previous year.