“Thank you for saving my life,” is this year’s theme for the World Health Organization’s World Blood Donor Day, celebrated globally on June 14th. In the spirit of giving and saving lives, a delegation of veterans and volunteers from the Tehran Peace Museum went to donate their blood at the Blood Transfusion Unit located at the Imam Khomeini Metro Station.

Every year, at this time, international organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Society of Blood Transfusion, the International Union and the International Federation of Blood Donors Populations of the Red Cross and Red Crescent mount a global campaign for the donation of blood in order to save as many lives as possible.

While in some countries blood donors are paid for giving blood, voluntary donations are common in the developed world, where ordinary citizens donate their blood to boost community supplies. In poorer countries, established supplies are limited and family members of friends donate blood when someone they know is in need. The WHO has set a goal for 2020 aiming for 100% of the world’s blood donations to be unpaid and voluntary.

In Iran, blood banks are now faced with a dangerous lack of blood supplies and there is a national call for Iranians to donate blood at least once year.

In the words of the WHO’s slogan for this year: “Give freely, give often. Blood donation matters.”

Click here to read a factsheet about blood donation: http://bit.ly/1pk73Ss

Photo By Shahrzad Hashemi