The Turkish Red Crescent (TRC) General Directorate of Blood Services focuses on developing a high-quality system of extracting, storing, and distributing safe blood. Working in partnership with Türkiye’s Ministry of Health, TRC’s Blood Services sets annual targets and provides uninterrupted, around-the-clock blood collection services and stem cell donor recruitment.
Shifts in donor behavior following the COVID-19 pandemic and the occasional politically charged suspicion have brought to light the need for a new incentivized donation system. The negative influence social media can have on potential blood donors—even during the recent major earthquake—further complicates this matter. As a result, effectively managing social media’s influence has risen to become a top priority for TRC for the foreseeable future.
The most significant event in Türkiye in 2023 was the Türkiye–Syria earthquakes known domestically as the Disaster of the Century during which two powerful earthquakes struck Türkiye’s southeastern province of Kahramanmaraş. On 6 February 2023, an Mw 7.7 earthquake struck Pazarcık followed by one of Mw 7.6 struck in Elbistan. Felt strongly in surrounding areas, these earthquakes caused extensive damage across eleven provinces in Türkiye and affected approximately eleven million people.
A total of 647 of our staff members employed at our four regional blood centers were affected by the earthquake: Six were trapped under debris and two lost their lives. The disaster impacted the close kin of eighty-five staff members who had been working outside the disaster zone when the quakes struck.
The General Directorate of Blood Services deployed 337 staff members for relief efforts, contributing a total of 13,154 person-days of service. General Directorate of Blood Services, we deployed 337 staff members for relief efforts, amounting to 13,154 person-days.
Here is an overview of our blood donor recruitment activities following the earthquake:
- Immediately after the earthquake, alongside our call for blood donations to meet the needs of disaster-stricken areas, we increased the number of staff members present and the equipment capacity of blood donation teams, particularly in fixed locations.
- Türkiye’s Digital Transformation Office added a new feature on its e-Government platform to share information about blood donation centers.
- To optimize our blood supply, we sent SMS notifications to O Rh-negative blood donors in the affected regions, asking them to donate blood as soon as possible.
- The nationwide blood donation appeal made by TRC’s President on 6 February 2023, received widespread attention and resulted in a significant increase in donations.
- In our weekly meetings, we assessed stock levels and central laboratory capacities to determine how many blood donations we needed for the upcoming week.
- We monitored daily blood donations throughout Türkiye in real time to ensure that they never exceeded that maximum of fifteen thousand units, as is usual in regular periods.
- We reduced the number of mobile donation teams and encouraged donors to visit regional blood centers, blood donation centers, and blood collection units instead.
- As for blood service units outside the disaster zone, we closely monitored donations and gradually adjusted them to their usual levels, so as to ensure a stable and balanced supply.
We reinforced our blood donor recruitment efforts through targeted communication campaigns throughout our response to the earthquake. TRC’s President shared donation figures, emphasizing the need to spread donations across several days to manage blood supplies more effectively.
We increased the frequency of SMS notifications to every ten days and posted thank-you messages to donors on the social media accounts of the General Directorate of Blood Services. Additionally, we tracked accounts posting about blood needs or urgent requests. We also ensured that shared by official TRC accounts reached a broader audience by encouraging people to follow the official announcement platforms.
Şahinbey Municipality Blood Donation Campaign
In response to the earthquake, we expanded our traditional blood donation campaigns to augment donation efforts in the four affected regions. This initiative was a collaboration between the Governor of Gaziantep, Şahinbey Municipality, and the Eastern Mediterranean Regional Blood Center. The campaign was held between 8 and 9 June 2023 from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. at Gaziantep Democracy Square, with support from the governor of Gaziantep, Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality, district municipalities, thirty-three local NGOs, the Gaziantep Chamber of Commerce, the Chamber of Tradesmen and Craftsmen, the Chamber of Industry, the Directorate for Organized Industrial Zones and its associated factories, and all schools under the Provincial Directorate of National Education. Over the two-day break, we collected 12,485 units of blood, bringing the total to 38,010 units to date.
Gaza Genocide
As part of TRC’s humanitarian aid campaign for Palestine, we organized the medical supplies requested by the General Directorate of Blood Services. We reviewed our stock and coordinated with suppliers to arrange the delivery of blood bags, apheresis platelet sets, and apheresis devices.
On 21 October 2023, we transferred 1,152 blood bag systems and 160 apheresis platelet sets from Ankara’s blood Donation center for shipment. We fulfilled orders for 6,912 blood bags and 5,000 apheresis sets from the relevant suppliers. We delivered 5,000 apheresis platelet sets and one MCS+ apheresis device and equipment. All of these were supplied by our solution partner, Girgin (i.e., company), the Ministry of Health warehouse at Etlik City Hospital, on 8 November 8, with the support of our Central Anatolia Regional Blood Center Directorate.