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Since 1992, SAMAR
has:
- Conducted over
1,500 drives
- Recruited over
70,000 volunteer donors
- Helped 227 patients
- Facilitated 50 transplants
SAMAR's Partners & Affiliates
January 2008
HAPPY NEW YEAR
SAMAR would like to wish a happy new year to every one of
our patients, volunteers and affiliates. We hope all
your wishes will be fulfilled for the coming year.
2007 was a record breaking year not only for SAMAR, but for
the NMDP as well. In the 2007 fiscal year, NMDP
recruited nearly 365,000 new volunteer marrow/blood cell
donors.
That is almost 1,000 potential donors registered per day.
And, SAMAR played a great role in bringing more South Asian
and minority donors into the registry.
This fiscal year, SAMAR recruited over 8,000 potential
donors.
Once again, we were able to exceed our original goal.
With the aid of all our volunteers and dedicated workers,
SAMAR was able to spread the message of marrow donation to a
large audience. We would like to thank all of you for
your great support and hope that we can do even more in
2008.
December 2007
AN EXEMPLARY VOLUNTEER
In a recent MetLife Magazine, one of our long time
volunteers, Mr. Jamshed Ghadiali, was profiled for his
extensive dedication to our cause. Mr. Ghadiali and
his wife Dr. Yasmin Ghadiali have been involved with SAMAR's
quest to help patients in need of a matched marrow
transplant. Below is an excerpt from the article.
30 Years of Giving and
Associate Shows No Signs of Stopping….
“It’s great to give blood,”
asserts Jamshed Ghadiali, Operations Manager, ADG - a part
of Individual Business, and he should know. Jamshed has been
donating blood, platelets and plasma since August 1965, and
with over 40 years of giving the “gift of life” under his
belt, has donated over 200 times.
This giver extraordinaire
first donated in his native country of India, and continued
the tradition following his move to the United States in
1976. In fact, over the last 10 years, Jamshed has averaged
10 donations of one kind or another per year. Additionally,
he has been on the National Bone Marrow Registry for years,
and is ready, willing and able to donate marrow should he
get “the call.” Also, as an active member of the South Asian
Marrow Association of Recruiters (SAMAR), a group dedicated
to serving patients diagnosed with leukemia and other blood
disorders from the South Asian community, Jamshed
continually looks for ways to increase awareness of the
Registry and recruitment of potential marrow donors.
Jamshed is a walking, talking
and sometimes even running advertisement for helping those
in need. Over the years, his impressive and selfless resume
has grown to include: running the ING NYC Marathon with
Fred’s Team to raise funds for cancer research,
participating in the Avon 2-Day Walk for Breast Cancer, and
helping raise money and awareness for UCP of Queens, a
branch of the national UCP organization whose mission is to
advance the
independence, productivity and full citizenship of people
with disabilities.
According to Jamshed,
giving has no bounds, and no matter how small the effort,
you can make a difference.
“You never know when something
can happen that will prevent you from being able to help
others. We should give until we can’t give any more.”
November 2007
SUCCESSFUL TRANSPLANTS
It brings us great joy to report that many of our patients
have been transplanted. With the aid of family
members, friends and strangers, Sameer, Aarohi, Urmi and Dr.
Prakash have all been transplanted. Our thoughts and
prayers are with them for a safe and quick recovery.
We urge all who have registered at drives for these patients
to stay committed to the NMDP and SAMAR and to future
patients who need a transplant. Bevin, Sonia, Savita,
Utkersh and Ankit are still looking for their Angel of Mercy
to provide them with a second chance at life. Please
continue to spread the word, hold recruitment drives and
provide us with your support.
NMDP COUNCIL MEETING 2007
In the first week of November, SAMAR attended the 2007 NMDP
Council Meeting. At the conference, SAMAR
representatives met with NMDP representatives in various
group sessions and networking events. This year, many
aspects of the meeting were restructured. The
recruitment session was a lively interactive day and
provided interesting ideas covering a range of topics.
Other topics covered dealt with new methods of retention and
recruiting.
SAMAR'S END OF FISCAL YEAR
SAMAR's fiscal year always ends just before the annual
council meeting. This fiscal year, SAMAR has surpassed
all other years. This was due to several focus
patients like Ted, Aarohi, Urmi, Utkersh, Trinu, Sameer,
Vinay, Bevin, Sonia, Savita, Ankit, Naren, and Amit.
Each patient brought with them a group of dedicated
individuals committed to helping their friend or family
member and any other patient in need.
This year, our call backs have proved to be very successful,
as more people have said yes to being a donor. This
does not mean that we have a 100% success rate, however.
We still need to educate the community to increase
retention. We look forward to an even greater year.
September 2007
After a splendid summer, SAMAR has forged into fall with
much gusto. We have been conducting drives
continuously throughout the nation. SAMAR was present
at the Annual NetIP conference in sunny Miami and has
attended business conferences at NYU Stern as well. We
have been conducting drives for two new patients and with
the aid of their friends and family, SAMAR has connected
with various untapped pools of registrants.
Also, please note that if you are contacted as a potential
donor, you must respond within 24 hours. Although we
have a specific time period to hear from you, the sooner you
respond the sooner we can start the donation process.
We know that you have busy schedules that are time
consuming, but we urge you to remember those patients who so
urgently need that transplant as soon as possible.
Thank you for your consideration and cooperation.
August 2007
SAMAR's SPLENDID SUMMER
As Summer of
2007 comes to a close, SAMAR is proud to announce that, in
the last few months, we have recruited over thousands of
potential marrow/blood donors for the NMDP registry.
Volunteers from all over America have risen to the occasion
and aided us in reaching the mass minority population. With
the aid of Team Vinay and an unprecedented number of “SAMARitans”,
we have worked towards our goal to provide every patient
with an equal chance of finding a matched transplant.
Also, we are
glad to announce that Vinay has found a match and is getting
ready to undergo the transplant. We would like to wish
Vinay a successful transplant and a speedy recovery. Our
thoughts and prayers will be with him and his family.
We have
recruited in large numbers, but we must not forget that each
and every donor we register must be a dedicated and informed
donor. Although numbers speak volumes about our recruitment
process, it is retention that will save the patients’
lives. So we hope that all who register with SAMAR or any
other recruitment group remember to stay committed to the
cause and to the patients in need.
SAMAR is
looking forward to the coming months as we will be
continuing our quest. We will be partnering with
organizations such as AAPI-MS/R for upcoming drives and
projects. Iota Nu Delta (IND) has already set up various
drives for the coming collegiate year. At the end of this
month, SAMAR will attend the Net-IP National Conference in
Florida. Net-IP always proves to be an opportune platform
to educate and create awareness. With all these and other
drives planned, we hope to continue our quest to bring
smiles back to life.
JUNE 2007
SAMAR's Continued Efforts
SAMAR has continued its recruitment efforts to provide every
patient with a greater chance of finding a matched
transplant. We have been contacted by friends and
family of Vinay, a 28 year old doctor diagnosed with a form
of leukemia. With the full force of a volunteer group
comprised of Vinay's family and friends, as well as
strangers, we have done many drives in various areas and
have scheduled even more. This endeavor has been
successful in educating committed donors about the urgency
to find a match for Vinay and also for other patients
seeking transplants. Through vast publicity, we have
even held drives at concerts and nightclubs; a testament to
the can-do mentality of our volunteers. We hope to
continue these drives and recruit even more potential
donors.
March 2007
SAMAR & NETSAP
SAMAR and NetSAP-Boston (Network of South Asian
Professionals of Boston) have joined to hold donor
recruitment drives. NetSAP-Boston won NetIP's "Best
Large Chapter in North America" Award for 2006 and
represents a group of motivated and interested individuals.
With their help, SAMAR wishes to connect with more corporate
and educational institutions within Boston and nationally.
SAMAR at AARI
In March, SAMAR attended a conference with the Asian
American/Asian Research Institute (AAARI), which is part of
the City University of New York (CUNY). As CUNY
enrolls over 24,000 Asian American students each year, AAARI
aims to bring this large community together to address
issues of cultural and scholastic importance. SAMAR
discussed the importance of registering volunteer
marrow/blood cell donors from the minority communities.
This presentation was broadcast live through an AAARI
webcast and reached people all over the world. A video
of this presentation can be found at the AAARI website as
well. We look forward to working with AAARI and
continuing our partnership with CUNY institutions in order
to educate one of the largest student communities in the US.
SAMAR Presentation at AAARI
January & February 2007
SAMAR RISES TO THE CHALLENGE
2007 began on a promising note. This past January and
February were record breaking for SAMAR. Our team started
out the year by participating at the SASA (South Asian
Students Alliance) 2007 conference in Miami, where we
recruited close to a 100 new donors. We were also endorsed
by celebrities including Kal Penn, Jay Sean, Thara, Bikram
Singh. This has enabled us to reach to the South Asian
community effectively. We went to hold 24 drives in January
and 14 drives in February. In total, we recruited 1172
donors in these two months alone.
We have received a new patient for whom we have been
conducting drives nonstop. Ted (Tae Wan) Kim is an
educationist, working to help youth of all descents achieve
their dreams. He was diagnosed in December with leukemia and
is in urgent need of a bone marrow transplant. So far we
have conducted 21 drives for him and a record breaking seven
drives in one day. We hope he finds a match soon so he can
go back to his career as an educationist.
We have started out the year with tremendous success and
hope to continue this trend throughout the year. Our success
would not have been possible without the help of our
wonderful staff and selfless volunteers. Thank you for all
your help.
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