Health Minister Mr. Lalrinliana Sailo today, inaugurated a two day 'State Level Workshop on Blood Donor Recruitment and Training of Motivators' ,  organized jointly by the Association  for  Voluntary Blood Donation (AVBD) Mizoram and  Mizoram State AIDS Control Society (MSACS) at the I& PR Auditorium.

The Minister praised the efforts of AVBD due to which the percentage of voluntary blood donations had gone up in recent years and added that they are rendering an invaluable service to the society by helping save precious lives through blood donations. He called upon the participants of the Workshop, drawn from various denominational youth associations, NGOs, NSS and representatives of political parties to strive for helping the helpless and the needy by spreading more awareness about voluntary blood donations. He thanked the MSACS in augmenting the stretched resources of the Blood Bank at Civil Hospital and said that the Government is taking steps to improve the Blood Bank in terms of equipment and trained personnel.

AVBD was set up on 10th May 1991 and it now has Branches at  Lunglei and Serchhip, two more Branches are proposed to be set up at Kolasib and Serchhip soon. The main purpose of AVBD is helping the Blood Banks to maintain the blood stock by spreading awareness about voluntary blood donations and the other functions are organizing Motivation Campaigns, Trainings/Workshops, Blood Donation Camps and felicitation of Voluntary Blood Donors. The efforts of the AVBD has boosted the percentage of voluntary blood donations in Mizoram from a mere 1.79 % in 1991 to 75.54 % in 2009.