Bucharest, June 13, 2018 – Beginning May 2017, nearly 400 people with life threatening diseases have received social and medical guidance and support, consisting of counseling and information, tailored to their needs, under the project „SMS for Life – Reserve Fund for Life„, implemented by the M.A.M.E. Association. The project is supported by the Vodafone Romania Foundation through a grant of 92,000 lei. The support provided to nearly 400 beneficiaries has enabled their access to psychological, social and medical services, in the country and abroad, as well as the raising of the funds they needed to cover the cost of their treatments or surgeries performed outside the country, including by allocating them short SMS donations numbers.
„Every year, Vodafone Romania Foundation is funding projects dedicated to people with serious illnesses. Our partnership with the M.A.M.E. Association is a long-lasting one, by which we are jointly offering a chance to life to patients from all over the country, who are suffering from severe conditions”, says Angela Galeța, Director of the Vodafone Romania Foundation.
„The information and guidance services provided under this project give patients access to manageable fundraising mechanism that is easy to use by donors. It is a mechanism designed for anyone who wants to get involved in helping people who need money to recover their health”, says Maria Culescu, President and founder of M.A.M.E. Association.
Since its launch in 2013, the „SMS for Life – Reserve Fund for Life ” project has had over 1,000 beneficiaries, i.e. adult patients diagnosed with serious diseases, of whom 50 people were eligible for the allocation of a short SMS number for donations. The people who were not eligible for the campaign were advised on how to access other fundraising methods. As a result of the support received, another 200 people have managed to collect the funds they needed. Over the five-year project, over 450,000 SMS messages have been sent out, with the donations thus collected for patients with serious diseases amounting to over 900,000 euros in total, funds that have been used to pay for treatments and medical investigations conducted at health clinics from abroad the country.
The Vodafone Romania Foundation is a Romanian nongovernmental charitable organization, established in 1998, which operates separately and independently from the Vodafone Romania SA’s business. During its 20 years of activity, Vodafone Romania Foundation has funded 1,104 programs run by 706 NGOs throughout the country, in the fields of healthcare, education and social services. These projects had a total of 2.7 million beneficiaries – children, young and old people and physically, socially or economically disadvantaged people. So far, Vodafone Romania has invested over 28 million euros in projects run by nonprofit partner organizations. More details about the Foundation’s programs are available at www.Fundația-vodafone.ro, http://jurnaldebine.Fundația-vodafone.ro/ and www.facebook.com/Fundațiavodafone
M.A.M.E. Association (Maternity, Advocacy, Medicine and Education) is a non-profit organization that supports children and young people diagnosed with cancer and other serious diseases in Romania. During the eight years of its activity, the Association has provided socio-psycho-medical services for approximately 3,000 beneficiaries. It has also donated high-performance medical equipment that serves more than 10,000 cancer patients annually. The Association has run information and awareness raising campaigns for over 5,000 students, promoting a healthy lifestyle and fighting against bullying. For further details on the Association’s activity and its results so far, please visit www.asociatiaM.A.M.E..com or www.facebook.com/AsocM.A.M.E..
