Oscar Bianchi, married, two daughters, two degrees, banker, lives in Bergamo, dedicates his free time to volunteering and in particular to AVIS, of which he is Regional President.
At birth, his second daughter – he recounts – was found to be affected by a very serious cardiocirculatory pathology, was immediately operated on and received many transfusions, thanks in part to which the operation was perfectly successful. Since then, he and his wife have given back to society what they received for their daughter’s life by dedicating themselves to volunteering.
Too often it is taken for granted that blood is available for everyone, but this is not the case. Currently there are 1,270,000 donors in Italy, of which 20% are in Lombardy alone. AVIS was founded in 1927 on the initiative of a physician, Vittorio Formentano, who recruited the first 17 donors through an announcement in Corriere della Sera with the objective of meeting the growing need for blood, having ready and screened donors, and eliminating the buying and selling of blood. Today AVIS is organized on a pyramidal model: National, Regional, Provincial and Municipal. Lombardy covers 24% of the national requirement with collections in hospital facilities (as in our province) or in AVIS Collection Units with 472,022 units of blood (the next most virtuous region is Emilia Romagna with 130,000 units). In Italy there are also other associations dedicated to blood donation, but 92% of donors belong to AVIS. Italy is also the only country in the world where blood is completely free: the donor receives no compensation, patients are not subject to payment for transfusions.
Finally, a mention of the bureaucratic difficulties that the Third Sector Reform requires to be addressed with the migration of statutes into the RUNTS (National Single Register of the Third Sector) and of the latest State-Region agreement that regulates the economic relations between the Association and the local ATS with current tariffs not in compliance with the sustainability of the Association (particularly where AVIS manages the Collection Units). AVIS associations in fact receive compensation from the State for their irreplaceable activities regulated by a uniform agreement throughout the national territory. The evening concluded with an appeal to younger people to volunteer for donation.
L.F.
