Annual report

•
2022 expenditure: EUR 300,000
The partnership between the Italian Red Cross, 
the IFRC and the Villa Maraini Foundation pro- 
vides training and specialized services for 
harm reduction, addiction and infectious 
diseases, to National Societies, NGOs and 
governmental entities.
It also manages transnational projects 
co-financed by the European Commission and 
other donors implemented in partnership 
with National Societies, as well as with other 
organizations.
In 2022, a local situation assessment tool was 
developed for National Societies to collect 
information on barriers, gaps and needs in 
implementing HR programmes.
The partnership engaged in advocacy during 
numerous events in 2022, including the 65th 
Session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs at 
the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 
co-organizing two side events.
In Iran, a project co-financed by the EuropeAid 
programme of the European Commission, sup-
ports the Iranian Red Crescent to implement 
harm reduction programmes for drug-addicted 
people who live in harsh conditions of social 
marginality.
In Kenya, a project funded and implemented by 
the Italian Red Cross with the technical support 
of Villa Maraini, is assisting the Kenyan Red 
Cross to establish a rehabilitation centre on the 
island of Lamu.
In addition, the VOLPRIS Project, coordinated by 
the Centre for European Volunteering based in 
Brussels, collected good practices on volunteer-
ing inside prison.
Transfusion Research Centre
Belgian Red Cross
rodekruis.be/transfusion-research-center
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2022 expenditure: EUR 1.7 million
In 2022, the laboratory developed a novel human 
platelet lysate (hPL) that is based on a leftover 
product of common blood donations. This novel 
hPL is added to the portfolio of products that 
are derived from human blood donations and 
are used for the expansion of cells and tissues 
in the medical field of tissue engineering.
The Transfusion Research Centre also collabo-
rated with a research group that is engineering 
bone tissue to bring laboratory-made bone 
structures to the patient. It successfully con-
tributed to the 
SUPPORT-E
 consortium that 
constructed a web-based database of COVID-19 
convalescent plasma donations and transfusions 
across Europe.
In another project, the centre’s laboratory 
demonstrated that such COVID-19 convalescent 
plasma may act to prevent SARS-CoV-2 transmis-
sion by applying it intranasally. This work used 
an animal model, so next steps are to confirm 
its potential in humans. Finally, the centre 
launched two novel research projects in 2022; 
one will investigate the grafting of fat tissue that 
is enriched with platelets and another will focus 
on making platelets from blood stem cells.
Red Cross Red Crescent Reference Centres