South-Asian Association of Marrow Recruiters

Marrow for a better tomorrowSAMAR aims to transplant its success to India.

June 2000: The South-Asian Association of Marrow Recruiters (SAMAR) is an official recruitment group for the National Marrow Donor Program, which focuses on the bone marrow needs of the South Asian community and is committed to patients with leukemia. SAMAR has played a primary role in educating and creating awareness within the South Asian community for the dire need for bone marrow testing and registration. There are a number of South Asian patients who urgently need a bone marrow transplant and their best chance of finding a match is within their own genetic pool or ethnic community. Since the odds of finding a match is 1 in 20,000, SAMAR has recruited more than 25,000 volunteer donors in the US, each of whom is a potential lifesaver. Now, SAMAR is transporting this phenomena to India! Thousands of leukemia patients die annually in India, because of not having the opportunity to find a suitable marrow donor. Though many of these patients have family members, friends and colleagues who want to be tested to see if there is a potential match, the Indian Government is unable to provide the necessary funds. SAMAR, therefore, is launching the Indian initiative by starting a bone marrow registry in India. It is hoped that the experiences learned here in the United States can be applied to make this new initiative successful, and SAMAR seeks your help in ensuring it. Starting on May 7th, 2000, SAMAR launched a campaign to raise at least $100,000 for the Smile for SAMAR India project. The concept is simple: hundreds of people across America will be asked — and inspired — to contribute a minimum of $50 to “Smile for SAMAR” to create a national fund to launch the India Project. The money will be used to buy the reagents necessary and pay the fees for testing and registering atleast 5,000 people in India. By simply following the link below you can find out more details about SAMAR and this national effort. Just Imagine: if a hundred of us each ask twenty friends to join us in supporting the “Smile for SAMAR” project, with tax-deductible contributions of just $50 each, then we will have raised $100,000. The success of this India initiative and its potential to save a life are in our hands. There are plenty of ways to join the “Smile for SAMAR” India project; anyone can do it. Here’s how you can help

• To make your tax deductible donation, please mail a check to: South-Asian Association of Marrow Recruiters (SAMAR) 55-13 96th Street Rego Park, NY 11368
• You can also call SAMAR at (718) 592 0821 and make a donation by phone.
• Additional information is available by email from [email removed] or online at http://www.brainlink.com/~samar

Lata Ramachandran

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