Intent on boosting life-saving blood supplies, the Turkish Red Crescent (Kızılay) gives no excuse to potential donors. The leading charity, the main agency in Turkey authorized to collect blood donations, unveiled a new project in cooperation with Meta, owner of Facebook, on Tuesday. The project offers access to all blood donation points for donors with a simple online tool.
The Facebook Blood Donations tool will facilitate registrations of the popular social media website’s users for blood donation and receive notifications on blood donation centers around them, as well as mobile units of the Turkish Red Crescent near their location.
Dr. Kerem Kınık, director of the Turkish Red Crescent, said at the launch of the project that it would be particularly helpful for guiding blood donors in cases of emergency, such as disasters where blood supply needs a surge.
Facebook’s Blood Donations tool was introduced in other countries in 2017 and has been used by more than 145 million users of the social network.
"We bring together people in need and donors, and Facebook brings together people of different backgrounds, companies and communities. We are happy that their international support for blood donation is now in Turkey. It will help raise awareness of blood donations and increase supplies," Kınık said at the event at a blood donation center in Istanbul. Kınık noted that the Turkish Red Crescent was active in 300 locations across Turkey for blood donations, and donations were distributed to around 1,500 hospitals after tests.
Speaking at the event, Meta Director of Public Policy for the Middle East and Africa Kojo Boakye said their Blood Donations tool was inspired by people from different parts of the world who took to Facebook to seek blood donations for their loved ones. "We noticed that we could do more on our platform which connects people around the world, we could inspire volunteers to donate blood and provide access to safe blood supplies. We are pleased to take a significant step in that direction this time in Turkey where we can introduce local blood banks to more people and reduce the deficiencies in blood supplies," he said.
The Blood Donations tool is credited with increasing blood donations by 19% among people who have never donated blood in their lifetime in the United States, within two months of its launch. In the United Kingdom, some 450,000 people signed up to use the tool for receiving notifications on blood supply needs.