The presidents report to the General Assembly 2008 in Marrakech
Report on our program of work for the three years 2005/2008 - and our achievements !
In 2005 the General Assembly accepted the work program, which I presented: I would like to go through the different points to see, what we have achieved, and where we still have more to do (the programme passed is written in normal letters, our results in bold letters):
1.1. Profile of our Federation
We should continue to give our Federation a higher profile. Our website should be updated, be more inter-active and have a direct link to the site of our young people. This was all achieved, and the IYC will take over the website after the 19th Congress.
We also need to have a presentation of on paper with the history of the IFBDO, our goals (an extract of our Statutes) our work plan and our addresses. In a good printing, of course, with photos etc - a sort of presentation-card of our Federation. The presentation leaflet was made by Phillip Chircop and distributed in English. But it should be updated - and translated into French and Spanish as well.
Our presense in (all) meetings, which concerns blood-donation should be assured (within the financial means, that we have). And we should let us be known - with coordinated viewpoints.
We have been present in all Global Consultations on Blood safety, all ISBT Congresses and at a number of other conferences, dealing with blood and blood donation. We are now treated as an equal partner by the WHO, the IFRC and the ISBT when dealing with the World Blood Donor Day and in many other discussions about blood and blood safety. The European Union and the Council of Europe listen much more to what we say, and I believe that he IFBDO/FIODS is better known in our around the world than three years ago.
We should also write articles on blood donation, for instance in the magazines such as "Transfusion today" but equally in the dailies such as Le Monde, New York Times etc. We have had articles in Transfusion Today and other specialized magazines, but we need to spread more information about the IFBDO to the general public.
1.2. Membership
We have a world Federation with fifty-one member associations, some of which pay their member ship fees, and all run by volunteers. We shall continue de develop mew national associations and raise the number of members of the IFBDO. At every General Assembly, we have accepted new members of the IFBDO, and today we have more than sixty member organizations and four applications for membership in 2008. We have also dismissed or replaced member associations, which were not active any more.
We shall make a list of "key"-persons in our Executive Council, which have the responsability to develop new associations and to improve our contacts with member associations in each part of the world. This is a major task for our continental delegates, but we could all do more in this field, so we need volunteers ro help with this!
1.3. Manual on how to develop a blood donor association
We should improve our guide "how to develop a blood donor association " and distribute this guide to interested persons in each region. The guide has been printed by the WHO (!) and distribued as part of the World Blood Donor Day activities, but the guide should be updated - and translated into French and Spanish - and brought on our webpage.
1.4. Consultation of our group of medical conselors.
We shall i.a. ask the advice of our medical conselors on the following points
- the safety of donors, possible health-problems after the donation,
- essential questions to the donors,
- implementation of the European directive on blood safety
- the proper use of human blood, future needs
- difference in safety of remunerated
and non-remunerated blood.
We have had a very constructive meeting of our medical counselors in 2007 in
Palermo, Italy, and the group will continue to meet each year from now, next
time in Lille, France in september 2008.
1.5. Secretariat services :
The list of addresses of member associations should be updated by the members. The address list on our website is updated whenever information on address changes reaches me or our Secretary General.
The website of the IFBDO www.fiods.org shall function and be reachable by all. A rational update can only be achieved with the perfect cooperation of all member associations which should make an effort also to bring messages and information to the webpage. Our website is VERY old fashioned (since I have made it, and I am certainly not an expert). I hope that the IYC will bring new life to the website, after they take over as webmasters very soon.
Our archives shall be collected at our secretariat in Paris and updated continuously. This has been done - and a big thanks to our French friends for this!
1.6. Agreement on the framework of our secretariat in Paris.
We should finalize an agreement with the FFDSB, including the financial modalities, on the fonctioning of our secretariat in Paris. This has also been done - and I am most happy with our cooperation with our French friends and the staff of the Paris office.
1.7. Travels:
In view of the feeble financial means available to the IFBDO travels and
representations should be limited. We (and especially I and our Secretary
General) have attended meetings on all continents, but within the budgetary
limits decided by the General Assemblies.
1.8. Visa.
Préparation of a manual on how to obtain visas (for Europe) . This guide on obtaining Visa has been finalized and distributed in 2007 - and the rules herein MUST be respected by all member associations in order to avoid any further crisis because of lack of visa, extra hotel-expenses and loss of money.
1.9. Internal Communication in the Executive Council
The Executive Council should communicate by E-mails,and everyday decisions should be taken by the President, The Secretary General and the Treasurer General. The President, the Secretary General and the Treasurer General should have support groups to help them, made up of volunteers The everyday decisions shal be communicated immediately to all members of the federation by e-mail, and a communication forum between our members should be established at our site on the Internet. This works quite well, but we need more volunteers to help the President, the Secretary General and the Treasurer.
Reports fromregional, continentalt and world meetings should be sent immediately to the Secertary General for presentation on the website, and the mailing of reports and letters on paper by surface mail should be limited to member associations, which still do not have access to the Internet. By now, all our membar associations have e-mail adresses, so we can save substantial resources by using e-mail and webpage communication. I hope that members will send MUCH MORE INFORMATION about their activity, and that we can bring such information continuously on our webpage in the years to come for the benefit of all of the IFBDO membership. Please do not forget to keep us informed on any change of e-maildresses!!!
2.1. Enhancing our financial situation
As all our federations are run by volunteers, very little funding is available for our activities. The Federation could do much more necessary work, if we had more funds, so a major task for the period 2005-2008 is to get much more funds for our work. The Treasurer General shall be heading this effort with the help other volunteers. Our economy is in a very healthy state, but we will need to increase our income, if we want to expand our activities
2.2. Membership fees.
A major task is to get member associations to pay their membership-fee. We can not be considered as a serious contender for outside funds, if our own members are not willing to chip in. More money should come from the industrialized countries, but also the developing countries must do a much better effort to pay their dues. A number of representatives can pay for expensive travel and hotels, but not pay the very diminutive membership-fee for their country. This is simply not acceptable, and we must be more strict with voting rights and full membership status to member-associations, which refuse to pay their membership fee. We have changed the membership fees to better reflect the differences between rich and poor countries - and we have decided that contributions from the developing countries shall be used for their proper continental activities only. This has given us more income, but a number of associations still do not pay their membership fee regularly, and this is simply not acceptable.
As fast as possible our Treasurer General shall introduce a method of credit card payment of membership fees (and for MIS medals). Payments are done by bank transfers mostly and some in cash, but we still need to make it possible to pay with credit card.
2.3. Budgets and accounts
Our treasurer general shall present a budget for 2006 in cooperation with the president and the secretary general.
The accounts for the year 2005 shall be prepared by the former treasurer in cooperation with the new treasurer general and the president - and be sent to the Control commission as soon as possible.
The assets of the IFBDO (including the stock of MIS medals) shall be transferred to the new treasurer general at the end of the year 2005.
The funds and the accounts of the International Youth Commitee shall be integrated in the budget and the accounts of the IFBDO.
This has all been done, and budgets and accounts are prepared every year, so that we can compare activities from year to year etc. So we owe a lot of thanks to our Treasurer General, Ólafur Kjartansson!!!
2.4. Sponsoring operations
We shall continue our efforts to find external economic support for our activites. All members of the executive council should be engaged in this effort, which will be coordinated by Gérard Vanhove. Our friend Gérard has helped our activity enormously by finding sponsors for the IFBDO in France. The LFB and Macofarma have given us economic help, making it possible to support continental meetings in Africa, Asia and Latin America and our IYC. We also owe a lot of thanks to Gérard!
2.5. The IFBDO-foundation.
We shall continue the work with the establishment of our solidarity foundation in cooperation with our Italian friends, including our honorary president, Pasquale Colamartino. A report on the legal status of this foundation should be made at an early date – and an update on our potential contributors to this foundation. The FIODS Solidarity Foundation is now established in Malta, thanks to our vice-president Phillip Chircop. He has accepted top become the new Director for the foundation after the 19th Congress - and to continue to work with us an advisor to the president after the Congress.
Funds can be found, but it takes
an active effort. We should look for private funding, funding from the European
Union and other government sources. We should especially develop funding for
organizational activities in developing countries.
The four Founding members (Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy) have each given
their contribution, but we now have to expand the financial basis for the
foundation, so that the revenue of the foundation can help co-finance projects
presented by the member associations and others.
2.6. Medals MIS.
We shall continue the distribution of MIS medals and prepare a new production of medals. " Manual for obtaining a medal shall be updated and communicated to the member associations.
Only few medals have been distributed during these three years, so we still have a stock of MIS-medals.
3.1. Future activities of the federation:
Enphasis should in the future be laid on the organisation of regional and continental meetings, such as educational forums and forums, devoted to specific subjects. This has been done on all continents except North America. I think this is the most important achievement of the three years and very much in line with our wish to decentralize the activties of the IFBDO.
3.2. Training seminars and exchange of information on
12. exchange of and development of recruitment materials.
13. model
statutes for a national association and for local associations.
A training seminar using the IFRC training materials is planned for 4-7 September 2008 in Denmark. Our experiences from this seminar will be made available for all members of the IFBDO.
3.3. Annual General Assemblies - in different
parts of the world. We have had General Assemblies in Italy, Spain and
Morocco, but we should keep in mind the expenses for travel and visa-problems
also, when deciding on the places for the coming General Assemblies.
3.4. Regional conferences,(e.g. South East Asia in January 2005 - by our West-Bengal member association; Baltic Sea conferences, conferences for countries from the Mediterranean etc.) This activity has continued, but I think we should have more regional and sub regional conferences in within the IFBDO.
3.5. Continental conferences (Latin America, Africa, Asia and Europe).
We have now annual continental conferences in all four continents with support from the IFBDO, except that Asia has opted for bi-annual meetings. In North America we were present at the World Blood Donor Day celebration in Ottawa, Canada in 2007.
3.6. Youth Forums
Our 5 Youth Forums have been very great successes and the sixth is in preparation for 2006 in Tunisia. We are invited to the seventh Forum in Greece in 2007 by the Greek Federation. All youth forums have been tremendous successes bringing young volunteers into the IFBDO. The youth forum 2008 will be in Catania, Italy, and hopefully we will have several continental youth forums in 2009. The 2007 forum did, however, experience very large problems with VISA for the African participants, so in the future we should look for continental forums - and respect the guide for visa-applications, developed by our Executive Council.
3.7. The International Youth Committee.
The International Youth Committee brings new blood to our Federation. The Rules of Procedure for the IYC shall be added to the Rules of Procedure of the IFBDO at an Extraordinary General Assembly in 2006 in Rome. These young members should continue their very successful fund-raising to finance their own activities, but the IFBDO shall also help financially. The IYC is taking an increasing responsibility for the youth work of our federation and has developed detailed plans for their work for the years to come. Congratulations - and thanks to the very active members of the committee for all the work done these three years!
The committee organizes the program for the future Youth Forums and shall develop its «manual» for the Forums. All done, of course!
The Committee form a good basis for the training of new responsible people for the benefit our four Federation, and the young people should participate in the seminars and conferences foreseen for our member associations. I would be happy to see more of our young volunteers also to other meetings of the IFBDO, but this up to our member associations: I believe that all member associations need more young volunteers so bring them to our meetings!
The committee should, also, work on creating youth committees in all our member associations – and help other young people in countries, which are not members of the IFBDO to start youth associations in these countries. They work hard to do so!
The young people can often help us with their knowledge of languages, their ideas for recruiting young donors, their mastering of new technologies and their know how. Still true!
AT the medium term Youth Forums could be organized on each continent to avoid problems with visa, the large travel costs and the knowledge of different languages. For the next tri-annual period this is a must - and we shall do this in cooperation with the Red Cross Federation and other friends working for voluntary non-remunerated blood donation.
A website « youthblood.org » is under
construction – and should be established at an early date.
The plan is now to integrate this website into the general IFBDO site: www
fiods.org.
4.1. Cooperation with other International organizations
We are recognized as a proper representative of voluntary blood donors, and cooperate actively with the WHO, The Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the ISBT. We are a full partner in the cooperation around the World Blood Donor Day - and take part in the Global
Consultations on Blood Safety. These efforts should be continued. This has all been done!
4.2. World Blood Donor Day
Our Secretary General has up to now been webmaster of the webpage www.worldblooddonorday.rog or www.wbdd.org , and the site is provided as a contribution from the IFBDO to the cooperation with the Federation of Red Cross Red Crescent Societies. This activity should be continued. I have continued to do this work until 2008, but from now on most of the work will be done by the Canadian Blood Services in cooperation with volunteers from the IFBDO and others. We have received funds from the ISBT-Foundation to expand the www.wbdd.org website into French , Spanish, Arab and Portuguese.
4.3. Council of Europe
We have consultative status with the Council of Europe and are listened to, when the Guide for Blood Safety is developed every year. This status shall be retained, and our European delegate shall be able to provide the necessary information on the activities of our European member associations for the promotion of the goals of the Council of Europe. He should collect the necessary information from our European member associations.
We shall also participate in the
Committee on « a Coordinated Research Study on Blood Donor Management in Europe.
When the Guide from the Council of Europe on Blood Safety is updated every year,
we shall make our suggestions made known at an early date.
Our secretary General has followed the meetings at the Council of Europe actively, and we have good working cooperation with their secretariat today.
4.4. The European Union
The European Union takes our suggestions seriously, when we address ourselves to the European Commission. We should ask for a meeting with Commissioner Cyprianou and with the leader of the Blood department in Luxembourg on the implementation of the Blood safety directive. We have improved our contacts with the relevant staff in the European Commission, and have a meeting with members of the European Parliament 6 May 2008. A number of issues will be developed by our European delegate (who will report on this directly to the General Assembly): He is also representing the IFBDO in a major project called DOMAINE financed by the European Union and aimed at improving the donor recruitment and retention in all 27 European Union member states.
4.5. The "Blood -Med" program
Pasquale Colamartino has been mandated to continue the work with the establishment of the Blood-med program. A report should be made at an early date. The project "Different lands, same blood" has been finalized under the leadership of AVIS Toscana, and the database developed in this program should be expanded to include data from many more countries - and include more data as well.
4.6. Rotary
We shall develop our relations with Rotary International and the national and local organisations in
order to engage volunteers and funds from these organisations. The IFBDO was present with a stand at the Rotary Wolrd Congress in Copenhagen in 2006 - and this cooperation is continued in a network " Our Blood Drive" which has its own website and several hundreds of members around the world. The activity will be expanded at the 2008 Rotary World Congress in Los Angeles, and it is my hope, that many Rotary clubs will engage themselves in the recruitment of blood donors in the years to come, especially since Rotary has members in severalæ countries, where the idea of having volunteer associations doing blood donor recuitment is realtively unknown.
4.7. Patients organisations.
We shall expand our contacts with association that work for patinets interests, in particular, of course, patients which receive blood products continuously (patients with Thalassemia, haemophilia, cancer, sicklecell and others). We have worked well with the international Thalassemia organsiation, and plan to send our vice-president Phillip Chircop to their upcoming confrerence in Bulgaria at the end of May 2008.
I will develop the issues above in my proposal for our Strategy for the ears 2008-2011. But I can not finish this report without thanking wholehartedly my fellow members of the IFBDO Executive Council in 2005-2008, the members of the IYC, the staff at our Paris office and all the kind people, who have helped our work over these three years. They have been very good for the IFBDO and for me. THANK YOU ALL!
Niels Mikkelsen,
President of the IFBDO