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Posted July 13, 2006
Contact:
Joana Ramos,
MAVIN Foundation Project Manager
MAVIN FOUNDATION RESPONDS TO TORONTO STAR ARTICLE ABOUT GROWING NUMBER
OF MIXED HERITAGE CANADIANS
Read original article here.
Dear Editor:
Thank you for publishing the July 9 article on the great need for
bone marrow donors of diverse genetic heritages. We were pleased to
be able to assist Andrew Chung with his report. We would like to take
this opportunity to offer some clarification on the issues and share
information about MAVIN Foundation.
The primary issue is that many more donors of mixed heritage and other
racial/ethnic groups currently under-represented in existing bone marrow
donor registries are urgently needed. Today approximately only 25%
of the +6 million US donors listed in the National Marrow Donor Program's® registry
are racial minorities, with mixed race people representing a mere 2%
of the total. With the rapid growth and increasing diversity of the
mixed heritage community, it is clear that more diverse donors need
to be recruited for donor registries, in both Canada and the USA, as
well as on a worldwide basis.
However, the problem will not be solved just by creating a separate
registry of mixed heritage donors. What does work to increase the numbers
of diverse donors is the targeted recruitment of people of specific
heritages by organizations with the cultural and/or language language
skills and sensitivity necessary to connect with any given group. It
is also important that many more programs be developed to collect donations
of umbilical cord blood from newborn babies, as it contains younger
blood cells that are easier to match to a wider range of patients.
MAVIN Foundation is a nonprofit organization that builds healthy communities
that celebrate and empower mixed heritage individuals and families,
and its MatchMaker Bone Marrow Donor Project is the only program in
North America dedicated to recruiting bone marrow donors of mixed heritages.
To learn more about our work, please visit our website at www.mavinfoundation.org.
Canadians can register with the Unrelated Bone Marrow Donor Registry
of Canadian Blood Services. For more information see the listing of
provincial addresses & contacts on the CBS website.
Sincerely,
Anne Katahira-Sims, Executive Director
Joana Ramos, MSW, Project Manager
MAVIN
Foundation
Read the complete coverage from the Toronto Star here.
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Looking back at eight remarkable
years!
Matt Kelley founded MAVIN
magazine as a 19-year-old freshman at Wesleyan
Univ.
MAVIN's premier issue
hit newsstands on Jan. 29, 1999.
In 2000, MAVIN magazine
became the nonprofit MAVIN Foundation.
Recently, Kelley focused his efforts on advocating on behalf
of policy issues.
In 2005, MAVIN sent five 20-somethings on a 10,000-mile trek
to raise awareness of multiracial issues.
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