Welcome to Global Network for Blood Donation, a Rotaryan Action Group. The aim of GNBD is to develop a worldwide network of Rotary Clubs, Rotary Districts and individual Rotarians, Rotaractors and friends with a common interest in promoting voluntary blood donation. If the estimation is correct, blood donor projects within Rotary International save or improve the lives of more than two million people annually. Still, our contribution to the world's blood supply is a modest one, constituting about one percent.
To join Global Network for Blood Donation send the following information to: info@ourblooddrive.org
First name, Badge name (nickname),
- Last name,
- Rotary Club / Rotaract Club, District
- E-mail, telephone.
- Full Address in home country.
Non-Rotarians and non-Rotaractors are welcome to join as affiliated members.
GNBD has about 1100 members in about 70 countries (by November 2010). As a member, you will receive our Newsletter, published about four times a year. There is no fee or other obligations.
Out of Rotary International's 1.2 million members, Rotary Clubs in over 60 percent of the districts within the organization work with their local blood banks to help assure the supply of blood from voluntary donors.
THINGS YOU CAN DO
- Donate Blood regularly.Encourage friends to become donors. Call your community blood center/blood bank for an appointment.
- Volunteer to help your community blood center. Use your influence. Help your community blood center access schools, workplaces, places of worship.
- Organize a
- Challenge other Rotary Clubs or other NGO clubs and organizations.GNBD will encourage Rotary Clubs within the same district, within the same region, within the same country - which are involved in voluntary blood donation - to establish a network of their own in order to share experience and strategies locally. (See the Blood Drive Handbook at www.ourblooddrive.org for ideas, plans, and materials).
- Start a Club 25 program in your community. A growing number of countries have formed Club 25 or Pledge 25 programs for young voluntary blood donors who make a commitment or 'pledge' to donate blood regularly and to maintain positive healthy lifestyles. Rotarians can secure that the first time blood donor who attends our blood drives and camps becomes a regular blood donor. Contact Diane DeConing didecon@tiscali.co.za
- If no voluntary blood donor register has been organized to cover your area, why not establish such a register yourself and make it into a club project? You may want to consult your local hospital beforehand. Co-operation between Rotary and other NGO's would be an obvious way of starting a register of voluntary blood donors. (Instructions regarding the establishment of voluntary blood donor organizations can be downloaded from the website of The International Federation of Blood Donor Organizations, FIODS/IFBDO, at http://www.fiods.org/ ).
- Rotary Blod Banks. in some countries, Rotary Clubs have engaged themselves in establishing and running a blood bank in the local area. In
- Celebrate World Blood Donor Day, June 14, at your Rotary meeting. Acknowledge those who donate regularly. (The World Blood Donor Day is sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT), the International Federation of Blood Donor Organizations (FIODS) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
- Help redeploy equipment from your community blood center or hospital. Most "previous generation" equipment is the stuff of dreams in the developing world. The GNBD works with MediSend to refurbish specific blood bank, laboratory and hospital equipment, train biomedical equipment technicians from developing countries and deploy appropriate groupings of equipment. American Rotary Clubs work with their local blood centers and hospitals to get the equipment to MediSed in
- Encourage your local blood center to develop a "sister" relation with another blood center in a foreign county.
Rotarians with specific expertise have offered their help advising others. Contact info@ourblooddrive.org
A Rotarian Action Group is a voluntary association of Rotarians, spouses of Rotarians and Rotaractors who unite themselves for the purpose of conducting international service projects that further the objectives of Rotary. Comprised of individual Rotarians, spouses, Rotaractors and friends from around the world, Rotary Action Groups are a relatively new feature of Rotary life. Global Network for Blood Donation was officially recognized as a Rotarian Action Group by the RI Board of Directors in February 2007.
And indeed, our work is appreciated: The joint efforts by so many clubs within Rotary International in the field of voluntary blood donation was recognized in 2006 with an "outstanding organization" award by AABB, an international association involved in blood transfusion and cellular therapies.
Send your comment to:editor@ourblooddrive.org