An Italian girl, who was saved by “medulla” donor Vahe Vardanyan, sent him souvenirs, her paintings and a letter, where she wrote: “Dear stranger, at first you were a hope for me, now you are a wonderful. We will never forget what you did for us. Thank you. You will always stay in our hearts. We send our hugs and hope, that one day we will be able to do that with our own hands. This small gift is to make you remember us. We wish you happiness. From father, a mother and a little girl”.
“Armenian center of medulla donors” benevolent organization started its activities by giving a chance for people that had blood sicknesses to get treatment. The reason for founding this center was the fact that Armenians have a special genetic composition and often foreign donors can’t help them. The first donor in Armenia, Mrs. Bella Kocharyan registered on January 8, 2001. Now the center has about 10,000 donors from Armenia and from the Diaspora. Although all donors of the center are Armenians, there are foreign patients too because the center works with the international network too. According to the president of the center Frida Jordan they have already done six operations. They have already registered 300 donors for 400 patients. The responsible person for this laboratory (this is the only one in the region) Armine Hjusyan informed us about the donor registration procedures.
At first, donors fill up a blank, where they write their personal details and information about their health conditions, then they give 4-5 ml blood. “Then we find out some information about the blood by using a special method and keep all this information in the computer”, says A, Hjusyan. They apply these methods on patients too in order to find out whether their information complies with the information of donors. But these procedures are expensive. Each test costs abut 150 dollars. “In order to raise money we organize at least two programs in Armenia and in Los Angeles every year. The “Lins” foundation has helped us twice, as well as “Glendale memorial” hospital has been supporting us since the foundation of our organization”, says F. Jordan.
They are going to develop their activities in the future too. “It would be better for us if these activities were carried out by the health ministry of Armenia, but their plans are different. People need a center like this in Armenia a lot, because those Armenians that have blood sicknesses have to spend huge sums to get treatment abroad. There are enough good specialists in our center, which have been trained in Germany. We only need to buy the relevant medical facilities, which are very expensive”, says F. Jordan.
Donors don’t spend money, the center takes care of all expenses, as well as for all travel costs abroad. “Our donors that have saved people’s lives are heroes already. As for the patients, although they want to know who saved their lives very much, their names are kept in secret according to the relevant international rules. Only in several years if everything has passed well, we let them meet”, says F. Jordan.