The City Council of La Laguna and the Canary Institute of Hemodonation and Hemotherapy (ICHH) have launched the project Committed to life, donate blood, an initiative that establishes a permanent solidarity circuit, with fixed spaces in the six districts of the municipality, to the location of the ICHH mobile blood donation units and the reinforcement of information through fixed signage and different formats to invite the population to donate blood.
Yesterday the installation of this vertical signage began in different parts of the city. Each sign has a QR code that provides information on blood donation and the different campaigns carried out by the ICHH.
The permanent solidarity circuit will have fixed spaces for the ICHH mobile units in Las Mercedes, Valle de Guerra, Tejina, Bajamar, Punta del Hidalgo, Guamasa, Taco, San Jerónimo, Los Majuelos, Finca España, La Higuerita, Guajara, Princesa Yballa , La Candelaria, San Benito, downtown area (Heraclio Sánchez street) and in the historic center. The planned points within the historic center will be placed later, since they must be subject to the regulations of the area declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco.
The mayor, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, recalls that with the establishment of these points “we comply with the motion that I presented to the plenary session last October, and which was unanimously approved, to create a permanent donation circuit in all districts and turn La Laguna into a city in solidarity with blood donation”.
Gutiérrez maintains that “La Laguna has all the conditions to lead blood donation campaigns in the Canary Islands, due to the number of inhabitants, the social conscience of the population, for hosting one of the reference hospitals of the Archipelago and because we are a young city in in which the university population has a very important weight”. Precisely, one of the objectives of this project is to bring young people closer to donation to ensure the generational replacement of people who are regular donors.
For her part, the president of the ICHH, María Teresa Gutiérrez Izquierdo, publicly thanked the City Council and, in particular, the mayor for the commitment to carry out this project that “will help us visualize blood donation not only in the center of La Laguna, but in all the districts of the city”.
He also expressed that “this is a pioneering action that will encourage other public institutions to commit to blood donation and give it greater visibility.”
Luis Yeray Gutiérrez has valued the great public service carried out by the ICHH to promote initiatives “that help raise awareness of the importance of donating not only in a timely manner, but permanently, to care for people who urgently need a transfusion of blood” and has appealed “to citizen commitment and solidarity” to continue meeting the demands of the Canary Transfusion Network. According to data from the ICHH, between January 1 and December 31, 2022, a total of 3,551 donations were produced in La Laguna in 293 departures from its itinerant donation points. This translates into an average of 12.1 donations at each outing.
United you can support the ICHH
On the other hand, the United Nations group can present a motion to the next municipal plenary session to urge the competent authorities to guarantee that the ICHH retains its current legal regime as an autonomous body dependent on the Ministry of Health, maintaining its own legal personality, treasury and its own assets and autonomy in its management, developing its own activities “of” and “as” public administration, or integrating directly into the structure of the Department of Health or the Canary Islands Health Service.
