SAMAR
55-13 96th St.
Rego
Park, NY 11368
samarinfo@aol.com
Tel:
(718) 592-0821
Fax:
(718) 592-5848
Boston Chapter
Vikramjit Chhabra & Roopjyot Kaur
| |  National
Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) was created in 1987
to provide marrow transplants to patients in need. Presently, it maintains a registry
of 5.3 million HLA typed caring volunteers for potential marrow donation, but
only 50,000 are of South Asian origin. Since a match is found 1 in 20,000 from
the same racial group, our patients’ chances are grim. It is vital that South
Asians make a personal commitment to become involved in saving the lives of our
patients. To address this issue an organized
effort to increase the number of South Asian volunteer Donors had to be made.
Ms Rafiya Peerbhoy Khan, a certified histocompatibility specialist with a long-term
involvement in the transplant field thus formed South Asian Marrow Association
of Recruiters (SAMAR) 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 recruited more than 55,000 volunteer
marrow donors and has facilitated 35 actual transplants. SAMAR has worked with
150 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. DON’T
BE AFRAID TO SAVE A LIFE | |
