Bucharest, March 26, 2019 – The Bârlad Blood Transfusion Center was upgraded during the 2017-2018 phase of the „A Chance for Life” program, implemented through the partnership of the Vodafone Romania Foundation with the React Association. The upgrading project consisted of renovating the interior spaces that form the donor’s path, the waiting room and the consultation cabinet as well as the façade. The center was also equipped with new furniture and medical equipment. The total area covered by the works is of approximately 600 sqm. In addition to modernization of the center, the project also included 4 mobile blood donation campaigns in 2017 and additional 5 in 2018. Vodafone Foundation Romania’s funding for this project is over Lei 94,000.
The Bârlad Transfusion Center has last been renovated in 1999, with several sanitation and repair works being carried out in 2005. Currently, the center serves three hospitals in the area: Emergency Hospital „Elena Beldiman”, Vaslui Emergency Hospital, and „Dimitrie Castroian” Municipal Hospital.
The Bârlad project is part of the last stage of the „A Chance for Life” program, which includes, in total, the rehabilitation and upgrading of the donor’s path from 24 blood transfusion centers out of the 42 centers currently in operation across the country. The first 18 centers went through this process in the period 2014-2016. Following the rehabilitation and the fit out of the blood transfusion centers with medical furniture and equipment, the number of blood donors and patients benefiting from these nationwide changes is expected to reach almost 1,260,000 in total.
„A Chance for Life” program was launched in 2008, with a total funding provided by Vodafone Romania Foundation amounting to approximately EUR 1 million. After its launch, the program has become the largest national blood donation program in Romania. The program started with several annual information and education sessions, meant to raise awareness of the importance of voluntary and regular blood donation, and continued with mobile blood donation campaigns organized in public places, at university campuses and at company headquarters. In 2014, the program was expanded by adding the rehabilitation and equipping of blood transfusion centers. The Bucharest Blood Transfusion Center, the largest in Romania, was the first to benefit from this program.
As a result of the „A Chance for Life” program, blood transfusion centers in Romania recorded in 2016 a decrease in the average age of blood donors at national level, for the first time ever since 1989. Currently, 30% of the blood donated at national level comes from young blood donors.
The Vodafone Romania Foundation is a Romanian nongovernmental charitable organization, established in 1998, which operates separately and independently from the Vodafone Romania SA’s business. During its over 20 years of activity, Vodafone Romania Foundation has funded 1,132 programs run by 730 NGOs throughout the country, in the fields of healthcare, education and social services. These projects had 3 million beneficiaries – children, young and old people, physically, socially or economically disadvantaged. So far, the Vodafone Romania Foundation has invested over 30 million euros in projects run by nonprofit partner organizations. More details about the Foundation’s programs are available at fundatia-vodafone.ro, http://jurnaldebine.fundatia-vodafone.ro/ and www.facebook.com/fundatiavodafone.
The React Association is a non-governmental organization that significantly participates in the development of the four pillars of any prosperous community: health, education, social economy and community development. The projects implemented by the Association are bringing major changes for the better in people’s lives, thanks to tailored interventions and active involvement. During its eleven years of existence, almost 1 million Romanians have benefited, directly or indirectly, from the activities run by the React Association. The positive impact of its projects is acknowledged by the 18 national and international prizes of excellence it has been awarded so far, which places the Association among the non-governmental organizations in Romania, winners of the largest number of prizes.
