International Launching of the Communication Educational Program for a Blood Donation Culture

Pilot country Venezuela

“Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family (…) medical care and necessary social services.” (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Art. 25)

With the purpose of supporting this decree, the Global Embassy of Activists for Peace (GEAP) presented the Communicational Educational Program for the formation of a voluntary, altruistic and regular safe blood donation culture “Life is in the Blood” (PEC-VIDA), as a mechanism which ensures the accomplishment of this right.

This program is one of the strategic components of the International Program of the GEAP “Life is in the Blood – Donating the Sap of Life”.

The official release took place in Venezuela, pilot country, during the month of July of this year 2015.

The act concentrated on the international board of the GEAP, headed by Dr. William Soto Santiago, Executive President; Gabriela Lara, General Director; Dr. Miguel Bermudez Marin, International Coordinator of the Project “Life is in the Blood”; among other members of the international organization.

PEC-VIDA for humanity

The GEAP created this program focused on the Education, by considering that “it is the most powerful weapon to transform minds and, consequently, change the world”. (Dr. Soto)

The PEC-VIDA it is a way to promote in people blood donation as a social responsibility, but among all an act of love, justice and solidarity; in turn, encourages that this culture of voluntary and regular donation must be a pillar of all the health national system.

For the implementation of this Communicational Educative Program, they have considered the following fields of application: family, community, educational and organizational.

The communicational strategies are also an important part of the program, by using the media for the awareness of the voluntary and regular safe blood donation, through contents directed to all public and adaptable to the culture of each country.

This initiative is based on the principles and values of the human being, in international safe blood supply programs and in the philosophic fundamentals of Dr. William Soto, author of the Program.

For the development of PEC-VIDA, an interdisciplinary team of professionals in Education (in their different levels), Design and Project Management, Methodology, Psychology, Law and Social Communication was formed.

This Program is inter-regional in scope (North America, Central America, South America, the Caribbean and Spain), and each one of the countries will establish their temporary stages, through a divided activity plan in phases which include from the socialization of the project to the evaluation of the results.

The PEC-VIDA impulses the purpose of the WHO for 2020

By fomenting this culture through PEC-VIDA, the GEAP anticipates the automatic increase of voluntary and regular blood donors, considering that in many countries the demand exceeds the offer of the donation of this vital liquid tissue.

This fact has a base in the annual report of the World Health Organization (WHO) of this year 2015, which indicates that only in 62 countries around the world, the national blood supply proceeds almost entirely from unpaid voluntary donors, while 40 countries still depend on donations proceeding from families or even from paid donors.

Through the development of this Communicational Educational Program in different countries of the world, the GEAP supports the purpose of the WHO: that by 2020 every country could have their blood supply from unpaid voluntary donors.

Saving lives, a permanent necessity

The GEAP considers that the donation of this vital liquid shouldn’t be a minimized or sporadic act; but that there must be an awareness of a culture of donation in the person, as a permanent necessity, and not only associated with emergencies.

This act increases hope and a better condition of life in patients with illnesses potentially mortal, just like by carrying out medical and surgical processes.

For the GEAP, blood donation is an expression of love and solidarity towards others, which at the same time impulses the establishment of bonds that contribute to peace and happiness of the human family.

Project “Life is in the Blood – Donating the Sap of Life”

The PEC-VIDA constitutes the first strategic component of the International Project “Life is in the Blood”, which is a project of social intervention proposed and designed by Dr. William Soto to contribute to the active and effective participation of the citizens, in the formation of a voluntary, altruistic and regular safe blood donation culture.

The second component is the International Campaign “Life is in the Blood”: Blood Donation Marathons and Drives. And the third one establishes the proposal of the Framework Law for the promotion of voluntary, altruist and regular safe blood donation.

Dr. Soto promotes that this voluntary and regular safe blood donation culture “it’s part of the integral peace for the human family, because in a family with health problems in their home, which needs blood to obtain good health, can’t have peace without this resource; but if the blood is provided and supplied that is required for the person, peace can come back to the family”.