Over 4 million people have participated in the donor actions of the Russian Red Cross (RRC), the county’s oldest humanitarian organization, since April 2022. Pavel Savchuk, Chair of the Russian Red Cross, member of the Public Chamber of Russia, talked about it at the II Conference on Donation Culture Development that brought together the representatives of socially oriented non-profit organizations, blood service institutions and the business community.
The conference was held under the XV All-Russian Blood Service Forum and was attended by about 300 participants. Olga Eichler, Head of the Department of Medical Support to Emergency Interventions and Blood Service of the Federal Medical and Biological Agency, Elena Stefanyuk, Director of the non-profit National Healthcare Development Fund, Anastasia Zatsepurina, Chair of the All-Russian Medical Workers as Volunteers Public Movement and many other experts addressed the conference.
The Chairman of the Russian Red Cross spoke about the RRC projects to promote blood and bone marrow donation and presented the outcomes of these projects.
"Since April 2022 we have held over 2,700 events to promote blood and bone marrow donation. Over 4 million people have participated in them. Over this period of time the Russian Red Cross has succeeded in attracting the donors to blood transfusion stations who have donated 21 tons of blood," Pavel Savchuk said
He also highlighted the importance of collaboration for greater coverage of the target audience.
"At the conference we sought to bring together the representatives of non-profit and volunteer organizations as well as of various business communities. Altogether we involved about 300 donor movement activists. The donation culture development is a joint endeavor of all the members of the entire donor community. We see our goal as creating a favorable environment for donation culture development. To this end we support the NGOs, blood service institutions, businesses and donors while creating different tools for each of them. The Russian Red Cross has a role to play for each of them", - said the RRC Chairman.
Olga Eichler, Head of the Department of Medical Support to Emergency Interventions and Blood Service of the FMBA of Russia, spoke about the origins and the history of blood service institutions. She noted that it takes joint efforts to form a culture of donation and to boost public interest in donation.
Elena Stefanyuk, Director of the non-profit "National Healthcare Development Fund" spoke of how unity helps to develop the culture of donation in the country.
"Everyone develops donation in their own different ways and this is what makes us strong. Thanks to the multiplicity of the approaches used, we all work together to stress the importance of the culture of donation, to boost public interest in it and to make it easier for the public to understand. Cooperation enables us to implement large-scale projects, such as the All-Russian campaign "The Donor Code. Mentorshiop" that is forthcoming this year and that has already brought together 90,000 participants of the donor movement", - she said.
According to Anastasia Zatsepurina, Chair of the All-Russian Medical Workers as Volunteers public movement, successful promotion of the culture of donation relies on using different approaches to raising public awareness.
"In our work we use different approaches to promoting donations for different target audiences. Over 7 thousand volunteers are currently engaged to promote donations. We have a special focus on working with corporate communities in order to reiterate the importance of regular donations. For example, for the time being we have established 35 donor clubs that function as hobby clubs, whereby we bring together the colleagues in various professional groups who wish to grow and to help others grow as regular and responsible blood donors", - said Anastasia Zatsepurina.
The conference also included thematic sessions on setting up donor events and building collaboration between specialized non-profit organizations, business community and blood service institutions. Maria Smolina, a federal trainer on effective communication and media education spoke, among other subjects, about the value of self-presentation in the media. She introduced the ways to produce high-quality and professional content for social media as well as spoke on the interviewing skills.
