Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Successes in Catalonia from World Blood Donor Day 2010

2011; Wiley; Volume: 6; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1751-2824.2011.01460.x

1751-2824

D. Elvira,

Organ Transplantation Techniques and Outcomes

On 14 June 2010, Barcelona hosted the 7th edition of the World Blood Donor Day. This initiative was born in 2004 and since then it has been actively promoted by the core agencies: World Health Organization, International Federation of the Societies of Red Cross and Red Crescent, International Federation of Societies of Blood Donors and International Society of Blood Transfusion, with the aim of promoting the voluntary and non-remunerated blood donation around the world. The event was organized by the Bank of Blood and Tissues of Catalonia, the Catalan Federation of Blood Donors, the Spanish Federation of Blood Donors and Red Cross in Catalonia and received support from the Ministry of Health of the Government of Catalonia, the Ministry of Health, Social Politics and Equality of Spain, the City Council of Barcelona, the Catalan Foundation Coordinator, the Catalan Board of Third-sector Entities, the Catalan Association of Towns and Regions, the Catalan Federation of Towns and the Spanish Federation of Towns and Regions. Over 100 social and cultural associations and cities joined the campaign by adding banners on their websites, by sending e-mails to their members and associates, by organizing specific with the promotion of the campaign or blood donation campaigns in their centres. Thanks to a media campaign initiated well in advance, between January and June 2010 there were 9991 082 658 impacts from TV and radio audience, newspapers and online press and 118 200 impacts from audience attending the institutional presentations and activities on the street. The local organizers contributed to a vast amount of activities that took place all around the year. The Catalan Federation of Blood Donors promoted the event through the 35 blood donors’ associations that extended the communication campaign to the whole territory. The Bank of Blood and Tissues spread the message among young people by organizing numerous blood donation campaigns at universities, implementing thus a radical programme called University Attack. A programme developed with the objective of persuading the young generation to become blood donors, leading to a 12% increase in the number of blood donors aged 18–25 years, while the number of donations per session has risen by 16%. The Bank of Blood and Tissues believes that donation should not be left to volunteers and traditional charity, and that it should be dissociated from times of emergency. With campaigns such as ‘Once is not enough. Come and donate blood’, the aim is to help people understand that donation is natural and necessary. It is an ongoing, civic act of solidarity that is a reflection of citizen participation. The communication campaigns avoid emotional appeals and emphasize the real need for blood and blood components for the health system to operate to maximum effectiveness. The growing number of donations and new donors testifies to society’s support for and awareness of blood donation, which is nowadays regarded as the responsibility of all of us. The threefold emphasis is on: education, so donors are aware of the processes the blood goes through after it is donated; information, so everyone is always aware of where and how to donate blood; and connections with a solid network of associations throughout Catalonia for the purpose of collaboration and promotion. The BBTs campaigns are adapted to different target audiences. Specific actions are designed for schools, including those known as ‘friendly centers,’ with the educational proposal ‘Blood donation and education for citizens’. The campaigns used at universities are more aggressive. Specific campaigns are also designed for healthcare centers, especially hospitals, and different immigrant groups. With its numerous blood donation campaigns the Bank of Blood and Tissues responds to the needs of 7·5 million people. Barcelona has pulled all the stops out (and will go on doing so all this year) to tell people about the importance of giving blood. From the start, the aims were to thank the voluntary blood donors for their work, to raise public awareness, to give an everyday air to this altruistic action and to bring blood donation closer to young people as an example of a culture of public-spiritedness in the 21st century. That was more than could be accommodated in a single event focused on 14th June. There had to be action all year to create different messages, approach different groups and get new people involved. In December 2009 the organizers launched a campaign called ‘Barcelona is full blooded’, designed to extend the social implication in donation. Through this campaign, and during the whole year, there have been many activities of mass communication, adhesions and public supports from all areas of the society in order to promote the civic consciousness about blood donation, especially among young people. The entire campaign was vertebrated through the web http://www.fullblooded.org, launched in February 2010 with an online magazine that included news, agenda and leisure time activities online from all around the world. Through the website one could also obtain the freshest news about the campaign and organized activities. With the aim of reaching young people and raising their awareness, the strategy was structured on three pillars: Youth activism through culture, leisure time and art instilling the values under the brand ‘Barcelona is full-blooded’. The concept of the youth campaign appeals to the pride of belonging. It refers to the character of their people and steers them towards donation blood in a positive way. This is a flexible and adaptable campaign, both locally and internationally. Music has been a constant feature. The San Miguel Primavera Sound, an annual festival in Barcelona attended by 100 000 people on 27–29 May, was the official festival of the campaign. ‘Barcelona’s Full-Blooded’ had a stand in the Forum Park, telling all the attendees about the importance of altruistic blood donation and getting the message across to young people by giving them the classic ice cream ‘Dracula’, with the message ‘Not only Dracula needs blood to live’. Another festival that started out in the city in 2010, EscenaBCN, also showed that it is ‘full-blooded’ as did many of the Catalan musicians who took part in it. Members of groups of Delafé & Las Flores Azules, Sidonie, Standstill and Mendetz did not hesitate to give blood for the cause while recording a video encouraging their fans to do the same. The International Comic Festival (Ficomic), which was held in Barcelona from 6th to 9th May, also gave a space to the campaign; and more than that – it published an original comic with the collaboration of the Escola Joso, with blood donation as the basis of the story. Nor were fashion and design left out of things. Digital activism the aim of promoting blood donation between young people throughout social networks. Strategic collaboration with social networks, identification of the most relevant groups and agents in order to develop presence on Internet; and promotion of blood donation among young people in the spaces on the Net among interest groups related with groups of young people for blood donation. As social networks are an essential place to get in touch with young people, a new Facebook application was developed: Donor 2.0 (http://apps.facebook.com/donante/) with the following objectives: To raise awareness among young people about voluntary blood donation by using new technologies and social networks To create a donors community based on their blood type To create a continuous blood donation in order to cover the needs of the Bank of Blood and Tissues To offer a new tool for the society that will help the donors recruitment To launch new means of collaboration exportable worldwide Between April and June 2010 (the trimester previous to the celebration of WBDD2010) some of the leading figures on facebook, blogs and Google multiplied the registers approximately by 90. As for Donor 2.0, in 2 weeks time the application received 2041 fans and in 1 month 12 545 visits and 1847 interactions at the wall. The application was designed so that all users could get in touch by knowing what blood group their friends belong to and where they are located. It also provides real-time information about the reserves of blood in each group, which makes it a very useful tool not only for donors but also for people who do not give blood but are aware of the cause. Leading figures on facebook Leading figures in Google Scientific dissemination at schools and universities With the aim of increasing the safety of all the phases of the blood donation processing and of the efficiency improvement, an ‘e-blood’ simulator of the follow-up system and electronic support for blood processing, from the collection to the transfusion, was developed. (3.1.1.) International Youth Forum organized with the collaboration of Red Cross Youth and the Youth Committee of the IFBDO (Barcelona, 11–12 December 2010) The main objective of the meeting was to gather a group of young people from different countries and to create a forum for the planning of the activities at global level, leading up to the World Blood Donor Day 2010 University Attack, presentation of WBDD 2010, activities of the Youth Committee of IFBDO, activities of the Catalan Youth Red Cross and workshops on civic centres, school and university activities, blood donation, volunteer activities on the street and social networks, were some of the main issues. In the participated young people from Brazil, Catalonia, Denmark, France, Greece, Great Britain, Italy, Spain and Tunis. (3.1.2.) Exchange meeting of youth from countries of the Mediterranean organized by the Centre for the Cooperation in the Mediterranean, Red Cross in Catalonia and Red Cross Youth (Barcelona, 10–15 May 2010) The objectives of the meeting were to give an opportunity to the volunteers to work on groups in a multicultural meeting, to get closer to each other and build new friendships developed in mutual respect to other cultures and thinking; to share knowledge and to create blood donation campaigns adapted to the cultural aspects of each country. In the meeting participated young people from Algiers, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Palestine, Egypt, Italy, Lebanon, Malta, Montenegro, Morocco, Serbia, Spain, Syria and Tunis. (3.1.3.) International scientific seminar of the Blood and Tissue Bank (Barcelona, 15–16 June 2010). (3.1.4.) Training workshop co-organized by WHO (Barcelona, 16–18 June 2010) The main objectives of the workshop were to provide an opportunity for the sharing of experience related to voluntary non-remunerated donation of blood and blood components, to identify the needs, challenges and priority activities in the development of national programmes for 100% voluntary non-remunerated donation of blood and blood components and to design, review or revise country strategies and plans for the development of national programs for 100% voluntary non-remunerated donation of blood and blood components in the participating countries. In the workshop participated representatives from Ministry of Health, Transfusion Services and Red Cross from Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Montenegro, Republic of Moldova, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. (3.2) Innovation of a blue strip An innovative blue strip with a specific design was created for blood donors with the objective of creating a graphic icon to give support to blood donation; an international icon that identifies, unifies and raises awareness of the active blood donor, the receptor and the prescriber; and an icon as a communication tool in order to raise awareness of blood donation support globally. The intention was to convert it in an international symbol of blood donation, since this good cause has no identification icon. The new symbol is an X-shaped cross of two blue sticking plasters and its original design was inspired by comics, with a language very close to everyone, especially the young people who were the centre point of the campaign. Its application is versatile: pins, adhesives, T-shirts, caps, badges, buses and underground adhesives, posters, banners on websites, electronic signatures, social networks etc. With the aim of raising awareness and spreading the message, it represents a support sign as an individual and collective (sportsmen, artists, musicians, journalists, doctors etc.) Over 500 000 adhesives with the symbol were distributed during the blood donation campaigns, institutional events and other public events. Before the end of 2010, the symbol received over 10 000 votes at the website http://www.fullblooded.org. The sports footwear and street wear firm MUNICH designed an original model ‘Munich is full-blooded’ in a limited edition with the campaign colors, which could only be obtained by a lottery among voters for the blue sticking plaster on http://www.fullblooded.org. During the run-up to the 14th of June graphic design and plastic arts decorated the bus shelters in several districts of Barcelona with original works by young artists. In the field of health, Hartmann marked the occasion by creating a real ‘blue sticking plaster’ identical to the campaign symbol, which it sold in a number of pharmacies throughout Spain. And television joined in with special actions and special programs all about World Blood Donor Day 2010 in Barcelona. In the world of sport football teams like FC Barcelona, RCD Espanyol and Real Madrid CF recorded videos showing the blue sticking plaster and supporting the campaign with the slogan ‘We’re full-blooded on and off the field’. And in motor-racing, Jorge Lorenzo joined the cause in the Circuit de Catalunya, making it clear with lettering on his helmet that ‘Jorge is full-blooded’. The main WBDD2010 event was split into two parts and took place on 13 and 14 June 2010. The big festival began on 13 June on the Plaça de l’Univers, where the Montjuïc fountains were illuminated and filled with color and the ‘castellers’ built their traditional human towers. Seven hundred people including volunteers, donors and representatives of public and institutional life in Catalonia and of associations of blood donors from all over Spain made a human mosaic in the shape of a drop of blood. At the end, to thank the younger people for everything they had done, the ‘indie’ pop-rock groups, Love of Lesbian and Sol Lagarto gave a free concert that was attended by more than 3000 people. On 14th June the celebrations moved to the Palau de Congressos de Catalunya, in the Forum area. More than 1000 people (leading politicians and people from the health field, representatives of local, national and international institutions, donors’ associations and voluntary blood donors) attended the event. Barcelona honoured all the donors who were present at an emotional ceremony and passed on the baton of World Blood Donor Day to Buenos Aires in Argentina, the city that will host the event next year. The World Health Organization sets a target of between 43 and 45 blood donations per thousand inhabitants per year. The figure achieved in Catalonia for 2009 are as follows: of the 298 995 donations, the largest group of donors was aged from 36 to 55 years (50·63%), followed by donors aged 26–35 years, 21·98% of the total. The number of donors aged 18–25 years reached 25 071 donors, 12·17% of the total of donors. The project WBDD Barcelona 2010 enabled us to increase the prominence of the Catalan transfusion model in the eyes of the international community. The international character of Barcelona as the world headquarters for donating blood favoured the raising of public awareness and the recruitment of potential donors based on the corresponding campaigns for encouraging people to become blood donors throughout the entire year. This project has helped us to extend and strengthen a solid network of blood donor bodies in our territory.