MISSION STATEMENT

South Asian Marrow Association of Recruiters (SAMAR) is a community based Network member of the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP).

We serve patients who need a hematopoietic stem cell transplant for leukemia, fatal blood disorders and other conditions requiring a cellular transplant for an improved life. Our focus is the South Asian community (people from India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, East Africa, Guyana, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and West Indies) and other minority groups, such as African Americans, Asians/Pacific Islanders and Hispanics.

Our goal is to educate and recruit potential marrow/blood stem cell donors in order to diversify the NMDP registry. We work to bring a smile back to life.

HISTORY

National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) was created in 1987 to provide marrow transplants to patients in need. The NMDP has long considered the South Asian community an invaluable source of educated individuals who could be motivated to saving the lives of leukemia and blood cancer patients. In 1994, the NMDP launched a national initiative to raise awareness and galvanize volunteer marrow/blood cell donor recruitment within Asian/Pacific Islanders (A/PI), including South Asians.

Rafiya Peerbhoy Khan, a certified histocompatibility specialist with a long-term involvement in the transplant field formed the South Asian Marrow Association of Recruiters (SAMAR) in 1992 out of compassion and concern for the patients. A prominent board of Directors and a dedicated team of volunteers are a major part of this group.

Since 1992, SAMAR has reached out to thousands of South Asians including other minorities through religious, social gatherings, national conventions and cultural events. SAMAR has made a special effort to access the educational institutions through its Student Network Committee that has yielded a large number of students as volunteer marrow donors. SAMAR is focused on the recruitment effort as an ongoing program and has held over 1800 drives and recruited more than 70,000 volunteer marrow donors and has facilitated 52 actual transplants. SAMAR has worked with over 275 patients to help them find a donor.

To achieve SAMAR's goals and increase the patients’ chances of finding a matched donor, SAMAR plans to support the registries in India and other South Asian countries and link them to the NMDP. It will be a valuable resource for patients globally. India has the expertise and technology to type and register numerous donors, HLA testing material (reagents) has been donated by SAMAR.

In an effort to reach out to influential South Asian community based organizations, the NMDP, along with SAMAR, has partnered with the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) and the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI), two key foundations representing the South Asian community. AAHOA is an affluent organization with more than 8,700 members. In 2002, SAMAR and the NMDP started the “Spring into Action – Save a Life” initiative with AAPI, a community organization consisting of 35,000 doctors and 11,000 medical students and residents. The NMDP recognizes the AAPI conventions as an opportune platform to provide information for physicians who treat patients who may be eligible for blood stem cell transplant. The “Spring into Action – Save a Life” project’s success lies in the utilization of knowledgeable AAPI members to educate South Asians who are unaware of the urgent need for them to register as marrow/blood cell donors; South Asians are always willing to stop and heed the words of their known fellow community members.

The interest from the South Asian community has been overwhelming and has allowed SAMAR to be one of the few national recruitment groups to surpass its donor recruitment goals for the past several years. The response from the community has been tremendous and there is a respectable number of South Asians in the NMDP registry. But, until each patient in need can find a donor, our collective work isn’t completed. The education, awareness and recruitment processes continue to be ongoing priorities; the fact that SAMAR and the NMDP have been successful thus far in recruiting so many South Asians shows that we can recruit even more potential donors. The thirteen year productive partnership of the NMDP and SAMAR will continue to reach out to South Asians throughout the nation with the constant hope of bringing a smile back to life.

For more information about the National Marrow Donor Program, please visit www.marrow.org

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