Vietnam Airlines extends the "Journey of Hope", joining hands to transport life and spread organ donation culture

Not only connecting every journey in the sky, Vietnam Airlines is contributing to extending the journeys of life through coordinated activities to transport tissues and organs for life-saving transplantation. Accompanying the National Coordination Center for Human Organ Transplantation within the framework of the Green Alliance, Vietnam Airlines continues to affirm the role of the National Airline in humanitarian activities, contributing to spreading community awareness and building a sustainable organ donation culture in Vietnam.

On May 19, in response to the Tissue and Organ Donation Day May 20, Nhan Dan Newspaper coordinated with the National Coordination Center for Human Organ Transplantation and the Vietnam Association for the Mobilization of Human Tissue and Organ Donation to organize the panel discussion program "Journey of Hope". At the same time, the event also witnessed the signing of the Coordination Program on media and mobilization for tissue and organ donation for the 2026-2031 period.

The event was attended by Comrade Le Quoc Minh, Member of the Party Central Committee, Editor-in-Chief of Nhan Dan Newspaper, Deputy Head of the Central Propaganda and Mobilization Commission, Chairman of the Vietnam Journalists Association; Deputy Editor-in-Chief Que Dinh Nguyen along with leaders of many units.

On the medical sector side, there was the attendance of Associate Professor, Dr. Dong Van He; Dr. Nguyen Hoang Phuc; Dr. Ha Anh Duc along with representatives of many hospitals, social organizations and accompanying businesses.

At the discussion, the signing ceremony of the Coordination Program on media and mobilization for tissue and organ donation for the 2026-2031 period between Nhan Dan Newspaper, the National Coordination Center for Human Organ Transplantation and the Vietnam Association for the Mobilization of Human Tissue and Organ Donation took place, which is expected to create a strong shift in social awareness, contributing to building a sustainably developed tissue and organ donation-transplantation system in Vietnam.

Notably, within the framework of the program, Vietnam Airlines shared a presentation on the journey of transporting tissues and organs to save people and the role of the aviation industry – a humanitarian activity currently being coordinated and implemented by the airline with the National Coordination Center for Human Organ Transplantation under the Green Alliance.

At the discussion, Comrade Le Quoc Minh, Member of the Party Central Committee, Editor-in-Chief of Nhan Dan Newspaper, Deputy Head of the Central Propaganda and Mobilization Commission, Chairman of the Vietnam Journalists Association emphasized that Vietnam's organ transplantation techniques have now approached many advanced countries in the world. However, to ensure the source of tissues and organs to save people, Vietnam still needs comprehensive solutions from perfecting mechanisms and policies to strengthening communications to change community awareness and encourage people to proactively register for organ donation after death.

According to Dr. Ha Anh Duc, Vietnam has now mastered many complex organ transplantation techniques such as lung transplantation, heart-lung transplantation, but the source of donated organs remains the biggest bottleneck. Over the past 10 years, Vietnam has only recorded about 300 cases of tissue and organ donation, and this is a quite modest number compared to many countries in the region.

Associate Professor, Dr. Dong Van He said that the rate of organ donation from brain-dead people in Vietnam has increased from under 5% before 2023 to 18.9% in 2025. Even so, this rate is still low compared to many countries such as Spain or Thailand, showing that there is still much work to be done to build an organ donation culture in the community.

Within the framework of the program, representatives of the three units performed the signing ceremony of the Coordination Program on media and mobilization for tissue and organ donation for the 2026-2031 period and launched nationwide registration for tissue and organ donation.

Speaking at the discussion, Head of the Communications Department of Vietnam Airlines – Mr. Do Dong Hung said that Vietnam Airlines is very honored to participate in the "Journey of Hope" program – a forum with deep humanitarian significance, where units together gain a more complete view on the value of tissue and organ donation and the responsibility of organizations in joining hands to maintain those "journeys of life".

According to Mr. Do Dong Hung, organ transplantation is a great achievement of modern medicine, however, for a successful transplant case, it not only depends on medical expertise but also requires the coordination of the entire system behind. In this field, time is of special significance because the preservation period of tissues and organs is always very short, being late by just an hour or a few tens of minutes can significantly affect the chance of curing patients.

“From an aviation perspective, we realize that transporting tissues and organs is not an ordinary transport activity but an urgent, continuous coordination process requiring near-absolute precision among many different forces,” Mr. Do Dong Hung shared.

According to the representative of Vietnam Airlines, from the hospital where the organs are harvested, the coordination force, ambulances, traffic police, airports, security screening, flight crew, ground service units to the receiving medical facilities, all must operate as a unified chain of connection. Just one delayed link can affect the entire process.

Since 2018, Vietnam Airlines has coordinated with the National Coordination Center for Human Organ Transplantation to deploy support for transporting tissues and organs on the airline's flights. Over the past nearly 8 years, Vietnam Airlines has performed more than 50 special flights transporting medical teams of doctors and nurses and about 20 flights directly transporting tissues and organs for transplantation at many hospitals across the country.

Through the actual implementation process, Vietnam Airlines realizes that the effectiveness of organ transplantation activities not only depends on medical professional capacity but also heavily depends on the capacity of system connection and interdisciplinary coordination.

There are journeys that must travel overnight through many localities; there are cases where the connecting time is very short, requiring the entire process from ground to air to be handled at the highest speed. Even, many units have to coordinate minute by minute so that tissues and organs are brought to the hospital exactly within the "golden time".

From that reality, Vietnam Airlines believes that forming a synchronous coordination mechanism between healthcare – traffic – aviation is an inevitable requirement. The signing of the coordination regulation among Vietnam Airlines, the Traffic Police Department and the National Coordination Center for Human Organ Transplantation in 2026 is evaluated as an important step to establish a rapid response mechanism and optimize the transportation process in emergency situations.

Mr. Do Dong Hung emphasized that Vietnam Airlines always perceives the role of the National Airline as not just stopping at connecting destinations or serving travel needs, but also needing to participate in activities that bring positive values to the community. In the current sustainable development strategy, the airline is promoting many activities associated with social responsibility, public health and humanitarian initiatives, in which the coordinated activity of transporting tissues and organs is an important part.

Besides, the representative of Vietnam Airlines also argued that for organ donation-transplantation activities to develop sustainably, it is necessary to continue promoting three factors including raising community awareness on tissue and organ donation; perfecting the interdisciplinary coordination mechanism and stepping up the application of technology and digital transformation in coordination.

The cooperation program is expected to create a synchronous communication network, contributing to raising social awareness about the meaning of tissue and organ donation to save people; at the same time promoting the participation of organizations, businesses and the community in the journey to extend life.

In that journey, the companionship of Vietnam Airlines through the Green Alliance not only contributes to supporting the transportation of tissues and organs but also strongly spreads the message “Giving is forever”, adding hope to many patients who are waiting for a chance to live.