Poject Swab, a Vietnamese Marrow Initiative

Vu Lan Marrow Drive

2009-08-27T11:14:00.000-07:00

Mua Vu Lan is Vietnamese Mother’s Day and is an important Buddhist holiday. It is a time to express appreciations to your parents, and especially to your mother. In short, Mua Vu Lan is a celebration of the Vietnamese family.

TeamAnh and Project Swab, a Vietnamese Marrow Initiative is dedicated to helping Vietnamese families find bone marrow and stem cell matches to save the lives of Vietnamese Leukemia patients. Since February 2009, TeamAnh and Project Swab has registered over 7,500 Vietnamese American marrow donors from across the United States.

The only cure for many blood related ailments like Leukemia is a marrow stem cell donation from someone of your own ethnic background. Statistically, you need 50,000+ potential donors to find one match. But, there are only 16,000 Vietnamese Americans on the registry. Registration is just filing out a consent form and swabbing your cheeks. If you are a match, the stem cell donation is similar to giving blood and is painless. The marrow registry is there for all families if their loved ones ever needs a donor.

TeamAnh in cooperation with many Vietnamese Buddhist temples are hosting the Vu Lan Marrow Drives around the country to help Vietnamese Leukemia patients. The many Vietnamese Leukemia patients include Dr. Anh Nguyen Reiss, a mother of two; Matthew Nguyen, a fiancé and pharmacy student; 14 years old Kaitlin Pham; and countless others. What better way to celebrate family then to be part of the marrow registry, to help these patients and their families, and to help your own family?

Below are the Vu Lan Marrow Drives near you. Please come and celebrate the Vietnamese family. Please register on the marrow registry and volunteer to help others register. Please contact teamanh@gmail.com for more info.

August 30 Austin
Chua Linh Son
Sunday, August 30 at 10:00am

August 30 Houston
Chua Tinh Luat
Sunday, August 30 at 10:00am

August 30 Houston
Chua Viet Nam
Sunday, August 30 at 10:00am

August 30 Columbus OH
Linh Son Temple
Sunday, August 30 at 11:00am

Friday 9/4/09 from 8am to 7pm SCRC convention (Hall A Booth #224) - Anaheim convention Center 800W. Katella Anaheim Ca 92804

Saturday 9/5/09 from 8am to 7pm SCRC convention ( Hall A Bo oth #22 - Anaheim convention Center 800W. Katella Anaheim Ca 92804

Saturday 9/5/09 10am to 2 pm Lien Hoa Temple Vu Lan celebration 9561 Bixby Ave., Garden Grove, Ca 92841

Saturday 9/5/09 from 9pm to 12 pm Club Bleu Restaurant 14160 Beach Blvd, Westminster, Ca 92683

Sunday 9/6/09 from 8am to 2pm SCRC convention (Hall A Booth #224) - Anaheim convention Center 800W. Katella Anaheim Ca 92804

Sunday 9/6/09 from 10am to 3pm Hue Quang Temple Vu Lan Celebration 4918 Westminster Ave, Santa Ana, Ca 92703

September 6 Hayward CA Compassion Meditation Center
Sunday, September 6 at 9:30am Sept 6 Columbus OH Linh Son

September 6 Hayward CA
Compassion Meditation Center
Sunday, September 6 at 9:30am

Sept 6 Columbus OH
Linh Son Temple
Sunday, September 6 at 11:00am

September 6 Columbus OH
Thuong Quang Temple
Sunday, September 6 at 12:00pm

September 6 Chicago
Quang Minh Temple
Sunday, September 6 at 2:00pm

Please Pressure Canadian Blood Services to Save Vietnamese Patients

2009-08-14T10:13:00.000-07:00

We've run into a snag with Canada Blood Service’s Onematch and need your help. We need all Canadians or people who have Canadian friends to pressure the Canadian government to save the lives of Vietnamese and other patients who do not speak English, French, or Chinese.

Because Onematch does not have written or online forms in Vietnamese, Onematch has agreed to let Projectswab provide an online form in Vietnamese which people in Canada can use to request a marrow kit. The request is sent to Onematch for processing. Onematch will process the request, but only if the donor reads English, French or Chinese, which defeats the purpose of an online form in Vietnamese.

According to Onematch, even if a Vietnamese only speaker wants to be a marrow donor, Onematch will refuse to let them be a donor because the donor cannot fill Onematch's form in English, French, or Chinese. Onematch claims that it is because they cannot be sure that the donor has given consent, or more appropriately, has given consent in English, French, or Chinese. But Leukemia doesn't discriminate based on langauge and ethnicity. Just ask Steven Pho, Matthew Nguyen, or Dr. Anh Nguyen Reiss.

Even if a Vietnamese only speaking donor somehow becomes a registered donor and matches a patient, would Onematch refuse to let the donor give their stem-cells and let the patient die, simply because Onematch was not satisfied that the donor has shown enough consent in English, French, or Chinese? Would any of these Canadian bureaucrats accept such a ridiculous policy if their English speaking sisters, wives, or parents were dying of Leukemia?

I am not a Canadian lawyer, but it seems to me that a Vietnamese speaker who goes to a website, reads a form in Vietnamese saying that they are registering to be a marrow donor, fills out a form, receives a kit in the mail, swabs their cheeks, and sends it back, is showing more than enough consent to being a marrow donor. Is there a Canadian lawyer or public official out there willing to help? Is their any legal solution to this, such as appropriate affidavits showing that the forms in Vietnamese explain that the donor is consenting?

Will Canada let minority patients die simply because willing stem cell and marrow donors speak a different language?

Beyond Marian Days - Reaching 50,000 Vietnamese marrow donors

2009-08-13T19:29:00.001-07:00

We've made tremendous strides in getting more Vietnamese registered to save the lives of Leukemia patients. But we have a long way to go to reach the 50,000+ number.

Right now, we are planning our long term efforts to help Vietnamese marrow patients. If you have ideas, please let us know.

Here are the main areas:
(1) Creating local teams in the US and other countries to do coordinated marrow drives around major holidays.
(2) Fund raising to fund our promotion campaigns on Vietnamese radio, TV, and newspaper
(3) Creating an online community and tools for coordinating marrow drives with our promotion campaigns

We really need the local, national, and international VSAs to step up and make Vietnamese community health a central mission. We ask for one national weekend of service from the VSAs devoted to marrow patients.

We really need the help of local Vietnamese organizations like the VACF, VAYLA, NYVACA, VABAW, VABANC, VAMA, etc. to mobilize and help Vietnamese Leukemia patients.

We've found that concerted efforts in specific locations like the Asian Garden Mall or Hong Kong Market combined with constant media promotion really brings results. We've also found out that "mega" drives, like Marian Days can be effective.

To that end, our plan is to help mobilize and grow local initiatives for weekend drives in specific locations in SoCal, NorCal, Seattle, Houston, New Orleans, and other areas where there is a sizable Vietnamese community.

We also plan to have 3 annual mega drives: Tet, Marian Days, and a national Vietnamese weekend of service preferably with the help of the VSAs.

Please help us with any or all of the above, and let us know how we can better help Vietnamese Leukemia patients.

The Project Swab (vietmarrow) Team

Dr. Bichlien and VACF

2009-08-11T12:26:00.000-07:00

Dr. Bichlien and the Vietnamese American Cancer Foundation has registered over 1150 Vietnamese donors in the month of July! THANK YOU! The VACF in partnership with Team Anh is ProjectSwab.

Marian Days Will Be The Largest Vietnamese Marrow Drive Ever!

2009-08-05T17:30:00.000-07:00

Vietnamese patients, families, and marrow donor programs have been gearing up for our largest Vietnamese Marrow drive ever at Marian Days. 60,000+ people will be there. Send us good thoughts and prayers to help us register as many possible so we can save the lives of so many in need. We dedicate our efforts to the patients who are in need and those who have died waiting.