ESC: DONATE, LIVE, INCLUDE - Volunteer to Promote a New Lifestyle

The Association of Italian Blood Volunteers, known by the acronym AVIS, is a non-political, non-religious and non-profit voluntary organization. Founded in Milan in May 1927, AVIS pursues an aim of public interest: to guarantee adequate availability of blood and its blood components to all patients who need it. It also has the task of protecting the right to health of donors and of those who need to undergo transfusion therapy, promote information and health education of citizens, promote the development of volunteering and associations, promote and participate in international cooperation programs. The AVIS structure is divided into municipal, provincial and regional offices and a national headquarters. Avis Regionale Lombardia is the structure that coordinates the Municipal and Provincial Avis of Lombardy and represents those who, joining AVIS at the regional level, have chosen to join an association based on solidarity and inclusion, having as their motto the will to donate in an "anonymous, free , voluntary, without any distinction of sex, race, religious or political belief". The Lombardy Regional Avis, as declared by its Statute, aims to: "promote voluntary, periodic, associated unpaid, anonymous and conscious donation of blood, understood as a universal humanitarian value and expression of solidarity and civic responsibility, which configures the donor as the promoter of a primary social-health service and health worker, also in order to spread the values of solidarity, gratuitousness, social and civil participation and the protection of the right to health in the local community of belonging. " In harmony with its institutional goals, with those of the National AVIS, as well as of the National Health Service, Avis Lombardia follows the following purposes: a) Support the health needs of citizens by promoting the achievement of self-sufficiency of blood and its derivatives and of the highest possible transfusion safety levels and the promotion for the good use of blood; b) Protect the right to health of donors and of those who need to undergo transfusion therapy; c) Promote the information and health education of citizens also in the ECM; d) Promote adequate dissemination of its members throughout the region, with particular reference to deficient areas and the recognized associative and health activities, such as the collection of blood and blood components; e) Promote the development of voluntary, periodic, associated, unpaid, anonymous and conscious donation at the regional level; f) Promote the development of volunteering and associations. Avis Lombardia, has a heritage value , in addition to the typical principles of volunteering, also civil principles such as democracy, participation and subsidiarity. With the approval of the Code of Ethics the members, volunteers, employees, temporary workers, consultants and collaborators in any capacity and any other person who may act in the name and on behalf of Avis Lombardia must respect and promote the following principles: Honesty, Reliability, Objectivity and Impartiality, Fairness, Transparency, Confidentiality. The numbers immediately represent both the consistency and the composition of the social base of Avis Lombardia and the widespread presence on the territory shows how the mission of Avis is still highly attractive and unifying. Avis Lombardia is, in fact, the regional reality that contributes the most to the results of the national system, affecting, in 2018, approximately 19% of the number of Avis offices (total seats in Italy 3.394), for about 20% in terms of voluntary donors and almost 24% in terms of donations. Avis is, in fact, present in 43% of the municipalities of Lombardy with 648 municipal and 12 provincial branches, associating over 267,000 members. During 2018, Avis members made about 500,000 units of blood available to the Lombard transfusion system; of these, 40% were carried out in the collection units managed by Avis. The figure regarding the number of new donors registered in 2018 to our Association, counting to 20,420 people, is even more noteworthy. The number of young people in the 18/35 age group who represent 62% of the total should be emphasized in the figure of new members, the result of the effective work carried out in 2018 through numerous projects involving young people. In any case, it is limiting to present Avis Lombardia and its volunteers exclusively with numbers, figures that represent only in part the great energy, vitality and optimism that donors express through donation, the promotion of the culture of gratuitousness of the Gift, living active citizenship as responsible citizens of the common good.