Documents for Volunteers
Right click and save the file.Manish's Plea video (AVI file, 31MB)
Manish's Drive Flyer Template (PPT file)
Another version of Manish's Drive Flyer Template (MS Word file)
Life For Manish Presentation(2007 PPT file)
Life For Manish Presentation(2003 PPT file)
Volunteer Roles at Drives (MS Word)
NMDP Eligibility Document (MS Word)
How to Organize a Drive. It's easier than you think!
PLEASE DON'T FORGET...TO PUT THE DRIVE IN MANISH'S NAME (EVEN RETROACTIVELY FOR THOSE COMPLETED) - THAT'S HOW THEY EXPEDITE RESULTS FOR HIM!!
Five steps to a successful drive:
1. Find a location and time where you can set up a couple of tables and few chairs. The location should be ideally be indoors or at least covered. It's best if you know if a large Indian gathering of some sort is going to happen where lot of people will turn out. Make sure you check out the venue first and ensure the organizers are willing to have you there and have space for your table.
2. Contact your local tissue and blood center or Contact appropriate agencies SAMAR for the East Coast and AADP for the West Coast, Asians for Miracle Marrow Matches (A3M) for the South West and confirm the date and time with them. Make sure you give them enough notice and let them know the expected turnout (if you don't know, let them know you are making a guess).
3. Publicize the drive in the local community - send out emails, place printed flyers and posters at places of interest to likely donors. You can also use the local and Indian press or radio. Try to reach out and educate people about the need and inform people about the simplicity of the registration process. More recruitment is achieved if people come to the drive with many of their questions already answered.
4. Recruit volunteers to help you during the drive when people show to sign up. I fit is a large gathering for a timed event, you may need to recruit more volunteers. Remember if you choose a social event where people may be eating or drinking, you need to have people drink water/rinse their mouth.
5. Convince people to register during the drive; talk to interested people and explain the situation. Here is one possible script: "Manish Bhardwaj is currently suffering from Leukemia, a type of blood cancer. The only way to his remission is to find a bone marrow donor. The problem is that chances of a match are extremely small, mainly because there aren't many Indians or South Asians registered on the national registry. Having many Indians on the registry is the only way to improve the odds for Manish and other Indian patient waiting for a marrow transplant. We are doing this drive here to sign up as many POTENTIAL donors as possible. The registration process is extremely simple. All you have to do is to fill out a form and give a sample of your saliva. It will take 10 minutes of your personal time but you could actually save a life. This is completely free, no cost involved. All it costs is a little bit of your personal time."
Some of the other facts that might come handy while persuading people
When a Caucasian needs a match they find 15 matches on average whereas an Indian might find one match or none.
This can happen to anyone at any age and god forbid if you get into similar situation then this will be the only registry that will come to rescue.
The available registries in India have a very small number of donors and when an Indian is looking for a marrow match the US NMDP registry is the only real hope.
Volunteer functions
1. Play the manish's plea video url if you have the opportunity
2. Talk to people at booth.
3. Help people fill out the forms. You can highlight the sections of the form that are mandatory, so that people in a hurry can skip optional sections. Check with your NMDP representative on which sections they consider optional.
4. Pre screen the forms filled out by people. Organize people waiting to have their form reviewed or their swabs taken, particularly when more than one person is waiting.
5. Help people take the cheek swab test.
6. Please send your schedule information to webmaster@lifeformanish.org to be updated in the website.
Links to the specific process pages for agencies
How to Host a Marrow Drive A3M
THANK YOU and don't forget to send results of the drive.
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[ Back to list of drives page ]