Ten Years of a Campaign That Changed Serbia’s View of Organ Donation

From patients waiting for a transplant to families who gave consent for organ donation, the campaign led by Hemofarm Foundation and Hemofarm Group shows how public awareness can be changed when driven by responsibility, perseverance, and real human stories.

Hemofarm Foundation and its founder Hemofarm Group, in partnership with the Ministry of Health of Serbia and patient associations, have been running the campaign The Most Important Call in Life since 2016. The campaign aims to increase the number of organ donors and transplants, support Serbia’s accession to Eurotransplant, and promote the adoption of legislation regulating this field. The campaign ambassadors are patients waiting for organ transplants or living with transplanted organs, people who have consented to donate organs of a deceased family member, and doctors who help citizens understand the scale of the problem and the importance of organ donation in saving lives.

Over the course of ten years, the campaign has rendered significant results. The number of donors has increased, and the Government of Serbia has adopted amendments to the Law on Human Organ Transplantation and the Law on Human Cells and Tissues, creating the possibility for every person to declare during their lifetime whether they wish to donate their organs and tissues after death. Citizens who sign a Declaration of Donation will be entered into the Register of Persons Who Wish to Donate Their Organs and/or Tissues and will receive new donor cards. A separate register will be established for those who declare that they do not wish to become donors.



The National Donor Day, marked on June 6 every year for the past ten years, has been established by Hemofarm Foundation to remind the public of the importance of organ donation as one of the highest acts of humanity. Public awareness of this important topic has grown, but continued efforts are still needed if Serbia is to move away from the bottom of the global rankings in the number of transplants performed.

When the campaign The Most Important Call in Life was first launched, around 1,000 people were on the transplant waiting list. The number of donors tripled at that time, as the campaign, with the support of various institutions, organizations, festivals, and prominent individuals, helped raise awareness of the importance of organ donation. The Law on Human Organ Transplantation was also adopted and later amended by the Government of Serbia in 2023 and again in 2026.

In 2019, we declared the ‘second half of the match for life’ and called upon Serbia’s top athletes to join the effort. By appealing to national pride, we wanted to turn the match around, as at that time, neighboring countries had far more organ donors than Serbia, leaving Serbia at the very bottom of the rankings in Europe. I am a donor, too! Because I support Serbia. was the message sent by our sports champions Ivana Španović, Maja Ognjenović, Dejan Stanković, Dejan Savić, Branko Lazić, Dragan Škrbić, and Zoran Tošić. These proven champions made a champion’s contribution to spreading the truth, fighting prejudice, increasing the number of donors, and saving lives.



Then came the greatest public health crisis of our time, COVID-19, and Serbia’s national transplant program was almost entirely halted. In 2022, only two transplants were performed. That is why, at the invitation of the Ministry of Health of Serbia and the Republic Health Insurance Fund, we relaunched the campaign in 2023 to promote a culture of organ donation. Thanks to that effort, there were 13 donors and 38 lives were saved.



In 2024, the campaign continued with an installation of 2,000 hourglasses, symbolizing approximately 2,000 people who were on the organ transplant waiting list at that moment. With the slogan Become Better People. Be a Donor. we once again called on the public to help build a society of responsible and compassionate people who accept organ donation as the highest act of humanity. Thanks to the campaign and the consent of nine families, 44 transplants were performed in 2024. That same year, the Serbian Orthodox Church publicly declared that it supported organ transplantation if the donor voluntarily consented to organ donation during their lifetime and the donor’s family gave consent after death.



During 2025, the number of transplants rose to 102. That same year, the National Donor Day was marked by an installation of 1,800 chairs in the Republic Square in Belgrade. The chairs symbolized patients waiting for the most important call of their lives, and each one carried personalized messages testifying to the hardship of living between uncertainty and hope for a better tomorrow.



The beginning of 2026 suggests the possibility of continued growth in the number of transplants performed. Between January 1 and May 18, 2026, with the consent of 17 donors, 71 patients received transplants, while 13 families refused to give a consent for organ donation. According to data from the Administration for Biomedicine of the Ministry of Health of Serbia, 1,228 people are currently on the transplant waiting list.

The road to the goal is still long. At least ten donors per million population are needed for Serbia to eliminate the transplant waiting list. The match for life continues, and in that match, all of us are 20 times more likely to need an organ than to become a donor.

Become Better People. Be a Donor.