IFBDO (FIODS) General Assembly in Sao Paulo, Brasil,
Thursday 27. April to Saturday 29. April 2000.
Opening session, Thursday, April 27, 2000
Participants: Milú Villela (representative of the volunteers at the Sao Paulo Blood Centre), Martin Manceñido Fuertes (President of the IFBDO), Sylvia Olyntho (Head of the Blood product committe of the Ministry of Health), Márcia Tedesco Dalcceco (Chairman of the Voluntary Blood donors in Brazilr af mødet), Jose da Rocha Carvalheiro (Representative of the Government of Sao Paulo), Niels Mikkelsen (Secretary General of the IFBDO), Kátia Machado Da Motta (head of the national blood control committee and representative of the Health Authorities)
First we saw a charming new Brazilian video about the future blood donors.
A wonderful choir sang the Brazilian National Anthem
Marcia Tedesco Dalcceco was very proud to have been allowed to arrange for this meeting. The meeting had been arranged entirely with the help of volunteers - even the interpreters were volunteers.
Milú Villela referred to the international year of donation , and hoped, that both in Brazil and world wide, many new donors would be found during this year.
Katia Motta reported, that the quality of the blood supply is increasing rapidly, as more and more spontaneous donors decide to become repeat donors.
Niels Mikkelsen mentioned on a personal basis, that he worked for the IFBDO to prevent people from being forced to sell a part of their body. He thanked the Brazilian volunteers deeply for their tremendous work to prepare for the conference, which had helped very, very much in his duties.
Silvia Olyntho felt that the government did much to further voluntary, non-remunerated donation, founded on a conviction, that an increase in the number of repeat donors would increase the overall quality of the blood supply. The rate of cassation of blood was falling in accordance with the lower rate of spontaneous donors.
Martin Manceñido welcomed all 25 participating countries and guests, including observers from the Red Cross. He knew that all persons present supported voluntary, non-remunerated blood donation, and he did - as all other members of the organizaition - work to stop for the sale of any part of the human body. He mentioned that approximate 25.000 persons are saved - every day - by blood. He thanked Marica Tedesco and the other Brazilian volunteers for their great work, so that the meeting could be held in Brazil. He urged them to continue their good work for the benefit of the Brazilian people.
Jose da Rocha, leader of the development department for blood products and the official representative of the government at the meeting. He underlined the importance of procuring the best, possible technical equipment for the hospitals and the blood centers, but technology was not worth anything without the blood donors. But - even if developing transfusion medicine was very important, one should not forget the bio-ethics .
Three MIS medals were given .
The first medal was given to Maria Ivone Carraro de Mendonca, who had worked for many years for blood donation, and who - after having difficulties to work, has asked to continue to work as a caller to donors - and potential donors.
Maria Ivone Carraro de Mendonca thanked for the MIS-medal - and wished that Marcia (and other volunteers) would have the force to on with her good work.
She second medal was given to Kátia Kouzak as representative of the Red Cross of Brazil, which had done a great work for blood donation and recruitment in all of Brazil
Kátia Kouzak thanked for the medal. She found it of great importance, that Brazil was a member of the IFBDO and, accordingly, recognized for its work in the international society.
The third medal was given to Álvaro Luis Osório, who is the son of the founder of the Brazilian donor organization, Leonora Carlota Osório. He received the medal in honor of his mothers great work, but also, for his continued support to the cause of blood donation
Álvaro Luis Osório thanked on behalf of his mother and himself. He knew from his mothers work, that when you work with love, you never tire.
Two local Portuguese donor organizations thanked for the invitation to attend. They were only observers and not representing the FAS.
Friday 28. April
The President opened the meeting, and mentioned, that because of the often limited resources available to the IFBDO, it was not always able to proceed with all the projects, which could be wished. He asked for understanding for this
The Secretary General went through the list of working papers distributed before the conference.
He noted that the following member organizations were represented at the meeting: Benin, Brazil, Quebec, Denmark, Spain, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Tunisia. There were also observers from the Dominican Republic, Germany, Portugal and Peru, and from the Brasilian associations in Campinas, Ribeirao Prêto, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul, Olimpia, Bahia and Piauí.
Three participants from local donor-organizations in Portugal participated as observers, as did a number of individual Brazilians.
Regrets had been received from Côte d'Ivoire, Estonia, India, Lithuania, Monaco, Morocco, Romania, San Marino and Sénégal. Regrets had also been received from the African delegate, Fahrid Beluafi, and the European delegate, Pasquale Colamartino.
Applications for membership of the IFBDO had been received in the Secretariat from Lithuania, Mali and Romania. The President had received an application from the Dominican Republic.
Estonia had asked, that their member ship fee was established as for other organizations in a difficult situation. This was later granted by the GA after explanations from the Secretary General.
Germany had decided to leave the IFBDO, since their repeated demands for a status as an organization in a difficult situation had not been answered. When they received the demand for the membership fee, the member association from Tübingen decided to withdraw from the IFBDO.
India, West Bengal, had asked, that their contribution was lowered to half of the minimum membership fee of 1000 French Francs. Such a status was denied, as there is no provisions in the statutes for a lower fee than the minimum fee.
The IFBDO list of addresses is updated continuously, and can be found at the homepage of Bloddonorerne i Danmark, www.bloddonor.dk under "Internationalt". The Secretary General asked, that all organizations continued to inform him of any changes in addresses for surface mail, e-mail, fax and telephone-numbers.
A website for the IFBDO should be established by the Secretary General, but so far the contents was too meager to start a website. He would, however, work on this project in the year to come, in accordance with a decision made by the Executive Council.
The SG informed about the conferences and meetings, where he had represented the IFBDO (see the SG's report to the GA). He asked for the GAs approval of his attending the following meetings in the coming year on behalf of the IFBDO:
This approval was granted by the GA.
The SG asked that anyone, who had files or any other documentation of IFBDO history, forwarded such material to the SG. He had received a wonderful collection of early FIODS-revue from the Honorary President, Mme Anne Croesi from Monaco, but otherwise the Secretariat was without files.
The SG expressed his joy, that FIODS Revue had been published in a new edition. The Secretariat received a number of individual demands for subscriptions, and so far all checks had been forwarded to the treasurer. But it was decided in Mantova, that subscriptions should be made through the member organizations, which should afterwards distribute the demanded number for copies of the FIODS-Revue. Payments for extra copies (over the five, which are given freely to each member organization) should be made to the treasurer directly and electronically to the Federations new bank account in the Netherlands.
The FIODS Revue would continue to be made in Spain, and the whole Executive Council was appointed as editorial committee. It would, however, be happy to receive contributions to the magazine, preferably as e-mail or as discs (in "Word") by surface mail. Pictures from IFBDO events etc. were also highly welcome.
It was emphasized, that each member organization can only receive four M.I.S.-medals in any given year. Payments for the medals should be forwarded to the treasurer electronically before medals were delivered to the recipients.
MIS could - in accordance with the present rules - only be presented by earlier MIS-recipients, which made it impossible for certain member organizations to distribute medals, unless a former recipient came to that country. It was decided, that this rule should be discussed, when the rules for the MIS were changed next time.
It was emphasized that the MIS should be awarded to individuals, which had made an exceptional contribution to the furtherance of voluntary, non-remunerated blood donation over a number of years. The present stock of medals was very low, and the President and the Treasurer General was authorized to produce the necessary new medals for distribution
It was approved, that that the next meeting of the Executive Council should take place in Holnon, France, on September 30, 2000.
An invitation to convene the upcoming General Assembly in Benin was friendly received, but it was decided - after consultations in the Executive Council - that the earlier decision to meet in Tunisia in 2001, should be upheld.
The next General Assembly will, accordingly, take place in Tunisia, 5-7 April 2001.
No decision was taken about 2002, but invitations were presented by Quebec and the Netherlands. It was decided, that a formulae - containing a number of facts relevant to the organization of a GA - should be produced by the Secretary General, which potential host countries should fill out. The GA should take its decisions after deliberating on the content of these formulas, before deciding upon an IFBDO venue.
A number of delegations had earlier had problems receiving visa to attend meetings of the IFBDO. The president had lately distributed official invitations to member delegations, and these letters had been very helpful in the visa process. Such letters could also in the future be distributed, but member organizations should ask for such a letter from the president in each case (when the venue of an IFBDO meeting was decided)
Italy has invited for an IFBDO European Youth Conference in Montesilvano 14.-18 September 2000. Attendants should be between 18 and 32, and a number of participants would be hosted by the AVIS.
Tunisia was planning an African Youth Conference in July 2000
Member organizations were asked to commemorate the International Blood Donors Day, 23 May each year. An increasing number of member organizations were actually doing so, and they were all asked to forward information on their activity to the SG, so that press coverage could be furthered, and other organizations be inspired by these activities.
Twinning between member organizations and organizations in other countries was strongly recommended, not least twinning with organizations in a difficult situation.
Voluntary contributions were also strongly recommended, so that the present budgetary restraints could be lifted. The Italian and Tunisian examples to organize youth conferences could be seen in this light. Hosting the Secretariat also involved a certain voluntary contribution.
The President noted in his report to the GA, that the past year had been an exciting year, and that he had been very happy to work with the other board members. An extensive communication had taken place by e-mail, and he hoped that more member organizations would be able to join the exchange of information by e-mail.
He was also happy for the cooperation with the Red Cross, through which many donors were contacted all over the world.
He was very happy, that the GA could take place in Brazil, so that more knowledge about the donor movement in this part of the world could be spread.
He thanked the Greek organization for hosting a very success-full Executive Council meeting in Patras, Greece, in October 1999. The Secretary General's report from the meeting had been distributed to all member organizations
He was also very happy for the meeting with the president of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, which our European Delegate, Pasquale Colamartino had organized. In the years to come, the IFBDO should improve our contacts with the officials of the European Commission.
After the Mantova meeting much had been done to improve our press coverage - and to increase the internal contacts in the Federation.
We should also establish world wide statistics about donors and donations. He had asked Mr. Peter Heimer, of the German Red Cross, who is also a counselor to the IFBDO-president, to help with this work. Peter Heimer would later contact the member organzations to obtain relevant knowledge and statistics.
He had also asked Peter Heimer to help in developing IFBDO-guidelines for blood donations - in cooperation with the medical counselors of the member organizations. Such guidelines should i. a. be based on the guidelines produced by the Council of Europe - and relevant guidelines from the WHO and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies..
He hoped, that the youth conferences in Italy and Tunisia would be success-full, and that Denmark would host an International conference in 2001. He hoped, that such conferences could take place annually in the years to come.
The President urged member organizations to send material to the FIODS-Revue. The magazine should continue to be published in all three working languages - and Spain would be happy to continue the editorial work in cooperation with the Executive Council.
He urged member organizations to be very careful when presenting candidates for MIS-medals, so that the reputation of these medals was not devaluated.
He pointed out, that the work of the IFBDO was not the result of an individual effort, but a teamwork, where everybody had done good work in the preceding year. He would like to thank the other members of the Executive Council for their work .
He mentioned, that the Executive Council had nominated our former IFBDO-president, Nicole Petton from France, as Honorary President of the IFBDO. This recommendation was approved with acclamation by the GA.
The president then welcomed the new representative from France.
Vice-president, Francis Ferrua (France) thanked for the kind words. (his speech is attached as Annex 1) He was happy to be with people, who think about other people and respect the integrity of the human body, which should never be a piece of commerce. Blood can not, so far, be substituted by another product, and many operations can not be performed if blood is not available. So it is important to organize the blood donors to create the strong network of donors to become repeat donors. At times it can be difficult to convince people, that donation is not dangerous and that donor blood can be of great help to patients, but we shall continue to work for this good cause. It is also important, that we - in our countries - work to get blood and the human body mentioned in the proper legislation, so that the legislation and the politicians take the ethical problems seriously.
Vice-president Ezzedine Riahi (Tunisia) thanked the Brazilian hosts for their wonderful arrangements for the conference. He also thanked the IFBDO for its help to develop the donor organization in Tunisia. There were now 5 blood centers and 25 blood-banks with 120.000 organized donors in Tunisia. The IFBDO had made it possible to develop a national organization in Tunisia, and had also made it possible to develop a regional organization in North Africa
The General Treasurer, Robert Labadie (Netherlands), underlined the necessity for electronic pre-payment of subscriptions for the FIODS Revue and for MIS-medals. Small checks cost more to be cashed than the actual revenue from check. As an example of this, does it cost 125 French Francs to cash a100 French Francs check.
He had found major problems with the earlier presentations of budgets and accounts. This was one of more reasons, that the accounts and the budgets for 2000 and 2001 had not been distributed before the meeting.
A major problem was that up to now all member organizations were supposed to pay their member fees, and this fictive income was balanced with a debt on the balance accounts. In practice, the fees were never paid, so the actives of the IFBDO were larger in theory than in real life. At our disposal, we had, at this time, approximately 250.000 French Francs, after a back-payment had been made by the former treasurer to a French company.
The General Treasurer found that the accounts should reflect the actual activities of the Federation. If a member organization for one or another reason could not pay their membership fee, they should contact the General Treasurer as soon as possible to explain the reasons for this. Normally a pragmatic solution could be found. If an organization did not pay - and did not contact the treasurer, this would mean, that that organization no longer had an interest in the Federation. These problems could only be solved in a dialogue with the Federation. He could not over-emphasize, that the federation only existed as long as the members paid their membership-fees, however small.
At this stage, the Federation was "travelling Economy Class" and it was very important that members paid their dues. He would be grateful for proposals for sponsors, as it would be useful for the Federation to have more economical resources, but such sponsors should not be allowed to interfere in the running of the Federation on in its policies.
The existing resources should be used for communication with the member organizations and for profiling of the Federation.
Claude Piotton, (Switzerland) was spokesman of the Control Commission and made reference to a written statement, presented by the control commission (Annex 2)
The bank accounts of the IFBDO should be controlled. For example has Tunisia, according to the accounts, not paid its membership fees neither in 1997 or 1998, but Tunisia had given proof of these payments. Accordingly the accounts should be verified.
A unanimous Control Commission concluded that it was impossible to verify the payments of membership fees.
The Commission proposed that member organizations, which had defaulted on the payments for more than two years, should be suspended. Even certain large countries have not paid, and the Commission urged all member organizations to pay their Statutary fees. For these reasons, the Commission could not approve of the balances for the year of 1999, and asked the treasurer to present new and realistic accounts next year.
Charlemagne Damase Rynce-Agassoussi (Benin) noted, that it was very difficult for the African countries to pay their contributions. It was often a question whether you were born rich or poor. The Africans were born poor, and this aspect should be born in mind, when discussing payments. He hoped, that the Federation would discard the debts and start to look forward.
The General Treasurer answered, that he was willing to find a solution and to look forward. But if no reactions were received, this had to be noted as in-difference.
Evelyn Van Steffens (Switzerland) asked if the IFBDO could ask the governments of poor countries to pay the membership fees.
The General Treasurer answered that this was not possible at this stage. But if a member organization wanted a letter for support of a member organizations application to the local government, such a letter could, of course, be written. But it was for the national organization to take such an initiative, not for the Federation.
Charlemagne Damase Rynce-Agassoussi (Benin) would like to have such a letter for support. He also explained, that even if Benin had not paid its member ship fees for a number of years, the whole country and people stood behind the invitation mentioned earlier to have the next GA in Benin.
After a discussion about the FIODS-Revue, it was agreed that it should not be a magazine filled with commercial messages. Sponsorships for specific projects were OK, but the daily costs of running the Federation should be borne by the member organizations.
After this GA-session, the participants visited the Sao Paulo Blood Center under guidance of Ms. Aparecida Lellis.
The GA met again in the afternoon, and the first speaker was Dr. Katia Motta. She gave a lecture on transfusion security and quality control in Brazil.(Annex 3).
Over the last 25 years voluntary, non-remunerated donation has steadily increased, so that Brazil today collects 3,2 million donations every year. The ministry had made a plan from 1998-2003 to increase, i.a., the number of multiple donors, which give much safer blood than spontaneous donors. A framework legislation had been made on the federal level, leaving the actual implementation to the states of Brazil.
At this stage approximately 2 % of the population were donors, but only ½ % were multiple donors. The government had allocated 500 millions Reals to the program, and a major goal was to reduce the percentage of waste. A national wide data base of potential donors should be established, so that a donor, which had been deferred in one state, could not give blood in another.
Large emphasis was put on education programs, so that all 16 year olds had heard about this project, and so that it would be natural for them to become donors at the age og 18.
In Rio de Janeiro, 16 % of blood from spontaneous donors had to be discarded, while only 2 % from regular donors. Spontaneous donors had an HIV-frequency of 0,06 – 0,07 % while the regular donors had a frequency of about 0,02 %.
Today all doctors in Brazil knew about the law, and that the strict rules should be applied. Individual states could, however, have even stricter safety laws.
A donor from Santa Catarina explained, that she had worked with donor recruitment since 1991, and that they organized donor parties and token rewards for 10 donation. She wondered where the limit for non-remuneration and donor gifts was.
Katia Motta answered, that it was OK to thank the donors in this way, but free days in connection with each bleeding, distribution of football tickets, or paying lost revenue were out of order.
She very much regretted the loss of Leonora Carlota Osório, since the large donor organization, she had left in Rio at her death, now was split up in a number of smaller, and weaker, donor organizations.
Peter Heimer, Secretary General of the Red Cross blood program in Germany gave a lecture on Safe blood and blood products, the World Health Day and WHO’s quality recommendations for different blood components, and the optimal application and use of blood and blood products. (The entire lecture can be found as Annex 4)
He concluded his lecture by underlining, that because of the constant progress in transfusion medicine, the blood supply had never been safer than today . But you can neither dig the donors from the ground or shake them down from the trees, so you have to have a good donor organization , since the blood transfusion services and the patients can not live without the blood donors.
The WHO’s World Day of Health, on 7 April 2000, had focused on Safe Blood, and was mentioned by several speakers, . They had only been informed about the day very lately, so even if they had wanted to support it, it had been impossible to do so.
Meetings in Regional Groups took place after this GA session.
Saturday 29. April
Evelyn van Steffens (Switzerland) gave a message from the Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Geneva.
Claude Piottton (Switzerland) told about an initiative in Geneva, where donors were gathered to celebrate World Health Day on April 7. At noon the World Health Day had been opened by the president of the State Council, M. Guy-Olivier Segoni, and later 500 donors were gathered to received diplomas of honor. 37 donors had been honored for giving blood more than a 100 times (for women) or 150 times (for men) A good publicity had come out of this event, and several new donors had signed up afterwards. This activity would be pursued at the International Blood Donors Day, 23 May, in order to obtain the goal of 2.000 new donors to the Blood Center in Geneva.
Evelyn van Steffens (Switzerland) made an overview of the Federations activities in 1999-2000 (se Annex 5) with special reference to the implementation of the Federations policy on "Quality Provision in Blood services" - worldwide.
She then referred to a letter from Marcela Garcia, the Acting director of the Blood department of the Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies (Annex 6), asking for case studies of successful recruitment or education campaigns from around the world. Contributions should be sent to the Federation directly. The group wished to have success stories from as many cultures as possible, since an idea working well in one country, may not work in another.
Reports from the Continental groups.
Asia:
A message was read from India (West Bengal) about a success full donor recruitment conference in 23-25 January 2000 and about seminars at the Blood Donation Camps on the World Health Day on 7 April. The West Bengal association had sent representatives to Colombo (Sri Lanka.) and continued to distribute its magazine : the Gift of Blood."
South America:
Márcia Tedesco Dalcceco (Delegate for Latin America) introduced the present activity in Brazil (Annex 7), and future challenges. Brazil wanted to take contact with other South American countries to inform about the IFBDO, so that these countries might become interested in becoming members.
The Donor Association would expand the voluntary work in other capital cities of Brazil, and create voluntary organizations all over Brazil. The expansion should lead to a National Federation of Voluntary Blood Donor Association , and to continue the work to educate future donors.
In Brazil the International Blood Donor Day had hitherto been held on 25 November, but this would be changed in favor of 23 May - as in the rest of world. 25 November would become the National Donors Day.
The observer from Peru explained, that the law in Peru forbids the sale of blood, and that there would be a celebration of the International Blood Donors Day the 23 May.
The observers from the Dominican Republic explained, that the Red Cross received approximately 55 US$ for each bleeding. The donors had their transport expenses refunded, and the Red Cross tried to compete with the private hospitals in order to abolish the sale of blood.
North America:
The delegate from Quebec explained, that a voluntary organization had been established in order to recruit new donors. There were, at this stage, a sufficient number of donors, but as multiple donors were much safer, the work to recruit and retain multiple donors had been initiated.
The association had obtained status as an organization in a difficult situation, but it was the hope, that Quebec could soon become a member with normal status.
In Quebec, any person, who had lived more 6 months in the UK, was excluded from blood donation, because of a (theoretical) possibility of obtaining CJD.nv via blood donation. This initiative had rapidly spread to other countries, and this again created great problems for some other countries. It was suggested, that a conference was convened to discuss the proliferation of criteria for deferral, which sometimes seemed ill founded, and often created problems in other countries. The goal for the conference should be to seek uniform deferral rules around the world.
Africa:
The group was chaired by vice-president M. Ezzedine Riahi, who read messages from the African Delegate, M. Farid Belouafi (Annex 8) and from the delegate with special mission for West Africa, M. Amadou Ba. (Annex 9). These messages give a comprehensive overview of the situation in a number of African member organizations.
Mali had applied for membership of the IFBDO, and the African Group approved of such a membership. In view of the economic situation in the country and the fact that this was a newly established donor organization, they were recommended to be given status as "an organization in a difficult situations with a yearly membership fee of 1000 French Francs.
This was approved by the General Assembly
The vice-president asked for copies of payments from the African countries, so that he could discuss with them, why they had not paid their membership fees.
The Maghreb countries hoped to be able to create a donor magazine - in line with the FIODS Revue - in order to strengthen the dialogue between the member organizations.
The African group had verified, that Libya was - in fact - a member organization of the IFBDO, which was duly noted by the GA.
A message from the delegate with special mission for Portuguese speaking countries, M. Joaquin Moreira Alves, was read (Annex 10)
Europe:
A message from Dr Rossi from San Marino was read (Annex 11)
The European Group had met under the leadership of vice-president Francis Ferrua (in the absence of the European Delegate, Pasquale Colamartino). The vice-president presented a report of the European Group meeting to the GA (Annex 12)
Romania and Lithuania had applied for membership of the IFBDO, and the European Group approved of these memberships. In view of the economic situation in both countries and the fact that these were newly established donor organizations, they were recommended to be given status as "organizations in a difficult situations with a yearly membership fee of 1000 French Francs.
This was approved by the General Assembly.
The president, the Secretary General and the European delegate had had a meeting with the president of the European Commission, Dr. Romano Prodi, who had been a donor and who had a very positive attitude to the promotion of voluntary, non-remunerated blood donation in Europe
He was willing to initiate a Europe wide campaign to promote voluntary, unpaid blood donation in the European union and in the applicant countries.
The Italian delegation gave an introduction to the upcoming IFBDO-youth conference in Abruzzo, 14.-18 September 2000
A Portuguese observer explained why he was not representing the FAS any more, but still wanted to work for the promotion of voluntary, non-remunerated blood donation in Portugal .
Henning Karlby (Denmark) told about the joint project with Monaco, which had provided a used, but highly usable blood collection bus for the blood donor association in Estonia. The project had been initiated though an IFBDO contact between Estonia, Denmark and Monaco, and the bus had become available, because the blood donors in Monaco had received a new bus at the occasion of the 50 years reign of the Prince, S.A.S Rainier .
The transport costs had been covered by sponsors and the Danish Ministry of Health, and all the necessary work had been provided by volunteers. The bus was now functioning in Estonia, which was still struggling to collect the necessary amount of blood from unpaid blood donors.
Robert Labadie (the Netherland) told about a problem with lower retirement ages, as donors now in increasing numbers stopped to give blood at the age of 55. The problem was, essentially, that these young retirees started to travel extensively, and accordingly, had to stop donating But at the same time, there was a waiting list for young donors to begin, so at the moment there was a sufficient number of donors.
Spain had established a new system of registration via the internet, so that the blood supply of the whole country could be registered, in order to note what blood types were in under supply. The donor population could then be scanned, and the appropriate donors found. These donors could then go to the nearest blood bank to be bled, and the blood be passed on to the appropriate patients.
Mr. Sif Ourabah (France) gave a lecture on international communication towards voluntary donors, supported by slides with a number of posters from around the world.
A number of similar themes seemed to be applied world wide, and these themes seemed to change from decennium to decennium.
The first posters were very aggressive showing violent accidents, often with heavy red colors applied. Later more discreet and in-direct references were made to the need for blood, or posters, which were made to make the observer feel guilty about not giving blood. Later again friendly (feel good) type of posters appeared, and humor was a crafty weapon in some cultures, but the humor applied was not always universally recognized.
A good discussion followed about the appropriate use of the different themes.
At the afternoon session, the Brazilian video was shown again, and the host promised to see, if - and what price - this video could be distributed to the participants.
During discussions, it appeared, that the Dominican Republic had wanted to become a member of the IFBDO, but that the regional group had not been aware of this. After filling out the proper formula (which normally should be obtained from and returned to the Secretary General) the membership of the Dominican Republic (in a situation noted as difficult) was approved by the GA.
There was a certain uncertainty as to the status of Peru, but as no membership fee had been received for a number of years, the observer was asked to initiate the proper membership procedure - and she received the proper formula for this purpose.
The participants were given red ribbons with an inscription in Portuguese saying "I give blood because I believe it helps other people" This ribbon was part of a Brazilian campaign" geared toward young people.
After discussion, it was decided, that the IFBDO should NOT produce IFBDO flags for the sale to member organizations
At the end of the formal meeting, diplomas and address-lists were distributed to the participants.
The list of participants is attached to this report.
Valby, Denmark, 3 July 2000
Niels Mikkelsen
Secretary General