The following is a personal testament from Ms Nadine Celestine of the Haitian Red Cross who attended the 11th International Colloquium on the Recruitment of Voluntary, Non-Remunerated Blood Donors which was held in Cairo, Egypt in January
My trip to Cairo was very fruitful. I gained a significant amount of information on the variety of issues concerning blood donation in different countries and cultures, which will surely aid in our work in Haiti.
Recruiting regular, voluntary, non-remunerated blood donors is indeed an essential issue globally concerning all the members of the XIth International Colloquium. Lives certainly depend on blood donors. As such, a variety of strategies developed by different countries have been initiated to recruit and commit donors.
Having carefully viewed the presentations of other blood donation programs such as “Club 25”, I have obtained a global view of the challenges existing in different regions of the world. I notice especially that we do have similar challenges and concerns. Sharing experiences and ideas allowed us to develop methods to efficaciously overcome certain challenges.
“Club 25”, is a project which aims to recruit regular, voluntary blood donors, while promoting the adaptation of a responsible, healthy lifestyle among the youth.
Donors with perhaps the greatest importance in supplying safe blood are the youth. Throughout the presentations and discussions, participants continuously emphasized the critical role of youth in safe blood donation.
The “Club 25” strategy aims to recruit specifically youth donors. Several National Red Cross Societies have shown a desire to launch “Club 25” in their respective countries.
| 
