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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

New campaign to create more blood-donators to start on December 15

Belgrade, 28 November 2005

Serbian Minister of Health Tomica Milosavljevic reported today that as a result of the “Five minutes of your time-somebody else’s life” campaign, the number of voluntary blood donations rose this summer more than four percent compared to last year.

Speaking at a press conference held to mark the conclusion of the campaign, Milosavljevic said that the campaign was successful, considering the fact that there were no serious shortages of blood this summer.

He said that there will be a new, winter campaign for blood donation that will last from December 15 to the end of January 2006 and will promote regular voluntary blood donation as a “lifestyle”.

According to Milosavljevic, the campaign should become a permanent activity of the Red Cross of Serbia, health services and the future National Transfusion Service, in order to achieve the aim of making four percent of the population voluntary blood donors, which is the figure needed to secure the amount of blood needed during one year.

National coordinator of the National Transfusion Service project Nada Vasiljevic said that according to statistics for the previous year, 3.1 percent of the population is giving voluntary blood donations, while the number in Vojvodina is above four percent, and the lowest number is in the district of Pcinj, where just 2.7 percent are blood donators.

The campaign “Five minutes of your time-somebody else’s life” was organised by the Ministry of Health, the European Agency for Reconstruction (EAR), blood transfusion institutes, the Red Cross of Serbia and the People’s Office of the Serbian President.

The campaign was organised as part of the National Transfusion Service project, which is being financed by the EAR with more than €5 million and which should come to a conclusion in 2006.