World Blood Donor Day is celebrated every year on June 14 around the world to make people aware of the Human Blood and its requirement to save lives.

The theme of this year’s campaign is blood donation as an action of solidarity. It highlights the fundamental human values of altruism, respect, empathy and kindness which underline and sustain voluntary unpaid blood donation systems. The slogan, “Be there for someone else. Give blood. Share life”, to draw attention to the roles that voluntary donation systems play in encouraging people to care for one another and generate social ties and a united community.

The host country for World Blood Donor Day 2018 is Greece, through the Hellenic National Blood Centre. The global event will be held in Athens on June 14. For the Region of the Americas, the host country is the Dominican Republic. This gesture recognizes the efforts made in recent years by this country in the field of the organization of blood services, with the creation of the first regional blood center in the country that seeks to strengthen the integrated networks of blood services to guarantee the availability and timely access to safe blood for all the population that requires it.

The campaign aims to highlight stories of people whose lives have been saved through blood donation, as a way of motivating regular blood donors to continue giving blood, and to motivate people in good health who have never given blood to begin doing so, particularly young people. Activities may include commemorative events, meetings, publication of relevant stories, scientific conferences, publication of articles in national, regional and international scientific journals, and other activities that would help in promoting the theme of this year’s World Blood Donor Day.