Marrow Project – The Netherlands (IFMSA NL)

Name of the activity: Marrow Project

Country/NMO: The Netherlands (IFMSA NL)

Program: Organ, Marrow & Tissue Donation

Contact information: [email protected]

Type of the activity: Campaign

Focus area:

Marrow donation

Problem statement:

Most of the currently registered donors are caucasian. Bu HLA typing of people is race-bound, for people with another ethnicity there is an enormous shortage of stem cell donors. Another thing: there are too few young donors registered.

Target groups and beneficiaries:

The main target group consists of (medical) students. We also pay attention to recruiting new stemcell donors and creating awareness among the general Dutch population.

Objectives and indicators of success:

Objective: The marrow donor project of IFMSA-NL aims to increase the availability of marrow/stem cell donors by creating awareness and actively recruiting marrow / stem cell donors.

• Increased awareness among (medical) students about marrow / stem cell donation
• Increased awareness among the general Dutch population about marrow / stem cell donation
• Increased numbers of (medical) students registered as marrow / stem cell donor

And more but too less space!

Methodology:

Since recruiting marrow /stem cell donors and creating awareness can be done in many different ways each faculty has their own activities within their budget. Creating awareness and the recruitment of new marrow / stem cell donors is mainly done by organizing symposia or information evenings. On such an evening an (ex) patient, donor and a relevant professional such as a hematologist or a Matchis employee is there.. Regularly information evenings are in collaboration with the project Dr.House

Plans for evaluation:

The project is evaluated at both local and national level. The local committees evaluate after the end of the college year and after each organized event. For each organized event we keep track of the kind of activity conducted, the number of newly registered marrow / stem cell donors, the number of IFMSA-NL volunteers, the points of improvement and the points that were going well. These evaluations are shared with the National Donor Coordinator, which creates an annual overview.