The meeting was jointly held by the Hanoi Steering Committee for Voluntary Blood Donation and the National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion.

With the slogan “Blood donation to save humans is right in our heart”, the Hanoi Steering Committee for Voluntary Blood Donation called on all Hanoi Youth Union members, students and young Hanoians to actively take part in the voluntary blood donation campaign and urged youth union chapters to mobilize all members to the campaign.

Over the past years, the voluntary blood donation campaign in Hanoi received an active response from local administrations and Hanoians. Many districts, precincts, universities and businesses claim to have drawn around 30,000 people to engage in voluntary blood donation every year.

However, statistics showed that the volume of donated blood just meets 30 percent of blood needed by the health sector. In 2006, the whole country collected more than 420,000 blood units from blood donors, five times higher than in 1993. It is predicted that hospitals in Hanoi may need around 188,000 blood units in 2007 from around 300,000 voluntary blood donors.