First International Congress of Voluntary Donation in Juarez, Chihuahua – March 17, 18 and 19, 2016

On March 17, 18 and 19, the Health Secretary, through the Blood Transfusion State Center, with the Global Embassy of Activists for Peace (GEAP), carried out the First International Congress of Voluntary Donation in Juarez, Chihuahua – Mexico.

The encounter, which was attended by more than 450 people, was addressed at doctors, chemists, blood bank professionals, social workers, health promoters, community leaders and civil associations; and its main objective was to improve the planning, implementation and evaluation of strategies for recruiting and captivate voluntary, regular and altruistic donors of safe blood.

During the first day of the encounter, courses and workshops were held. The first one was directed to the staff of the Blood Services, and was led by Martin Gómez Cervantes, from El Paso -TX, U.S.A., where the headquarters of United Blood Services is located. They reviewed the work for the management and participation of an external collection of voluntary blood donation, service and donor care.

The workshop PEC-VIDA (Communicational Education Program), which is managed by the GEAP, was taught by Ruth de Bermudez, international coordinator of the Program "Life is in the Blood” - Donating the Sap of Life", where she explained the objectives of the Integral Program and its implementation process.

At the end, the assistants were taken to the Institute of Social Sciences and Administration ICSA- UACJ, to see and analyze field work, and how to carry out a campaign of donation in the universities of Juárez.

"Life is in the Blood – Donating the Sap of Life", as a successful program

The second day of activities was held at the CIBELES Convention Center with master lectures in which topics such as "Where are we going? Panorama of DVA in Mexico ", by Dr. Julieta Rojo Medina, director of the National Center of Blood Transfusions (CETS); "The experience of United Blood Services for Latin America", by MA, MT. Paula Villalobos, vice president of operations of the organization; and "The benefits of voluntary and altruistic blood donation", in given byDr. José Ramiro Cruz.

Ten invited panelists spoke from their experiences and contributions in the field of health, exposing the benefits and advances in the process of citizen awareness to increase the number of volunteer blood donors.

Among the panelists was the Global Embassy of Activists for Peace, represented by its Executive President, Dr. William Soto Santiago, who presented the International Program "Life is in the Blood - Donating the Sap of Life" as a successful program. He pointed out that according to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, established during the 70th General Assembly of the United Nations (UN), the common desire of all inhabitants of planet Earth is to achieve peace to live in full happiness; and in this sense, the GEAP has found in voluntary safe blood donation one of the most appropriate mechanisms to achieve this.

In his presentation, he indicated that after the analysis of the results of the International Campaigns on "Life is in the Blood", the need to create legal, educational and communicational tools became evident, to increase the number of effective safe blood donations each day.

Since the general objective of the Program is to contribute to the formation of a voluntary, altruistic and regular culture of safe blood donation, to increase the active and effective participation of citizens, he presented the lines of actions designed to achieve this.

“It is time to join forces and generate actions that allow a real awareness from the governments, the services of blood donation, the institutions and the voluntary donors. Just like this we will achieve 100% of the voluntary, altruist and regular safe blood donation.”

The third day of the encounter closed with the exhibition of experiences by entities such as the Global Blood Fund and the Association of Professional Donor Recruitment, and the campaign analysis of altruistic donation of Blood CETS 2006-2014. Marketing strategies applied to donors, the evaluation mechanisms of the external collections DVA, the estimation of real blood needs and its components, and the strategies to reach a broad donor base were the topics addressed by Ana Lucía Cabezas of Colombia; Dr. René Barrios Cruz of Nicaragua; Dr. José Ramiro Cruz of Washington D.C.; and Dr. Roberto Roig of Spain, respectively.