Kigali, June 12 2019--- Rwanda becomes the second African Country to host World Blood Donor Day (WBDD), following South Africa 15 years ago. World Health Organisation chose Rwanda to host the 2019 WBDD in order to raise awareness that safe and sufficient blood supply is important in many key public health programs in Africa. WBDD is celebrated annually on June 14, this year’s global theme is “Safe Blood for All” and will see over 350 participants attend from all over the world.

Through the Rwanda National Center for Blood Transfusion Division of (NCBT)/Rwanda Biomedical Center (RBC)/Ministry of Health, Rwanda has made tremendous success in line with blood donation. The progress includes providing safe and adequate blood through a well-organized, national blood systems as an integral part of the national health-care policy, implementation of a Quality Management System (QMS) which led to Rwanda’s earning of the top-most Step 3 accreditation from Africa Society for Blood Transfusion and ensuring safe blood for all patients by using unmanned drones to transport blood supplies to remote areas.

World Blood Donor Day 2019 activities in Rwanda aim at mobilizing the general population, particularly young people to begin donating blood regularly. World Blood Donor Day celebration brings a precious opportunity to national and global level donors to commemorate the birthday of the Karl Landsteiner (a great scientist who won the Nobel Prize for his great discovery of the ABO blood group system). An Academy Day is organized on 13th June in Kigali Convention Center and brings together specialists and Partners worldwide for strengthening blood donation activities.

WBDD was established in 2004 and it serves to thank voluntary, unpaid donors for their life- saving gift of blood and to raise awareness of the need for regular blood donations to ensure the quality, safety and availability of blood and blood products for patients in need worldwide. World Blood Donor Day is one of the main official global public health campaigns marked by World Health Organization (WHO), along with World Health Day, World Tuberculosis Day, World Immunization Week, World Malaria Day, World No Tobacco Day, World Hepatitis Day and World AIDS Day.