Bucharest, July 6, 2017 – Between May 2017 and April 2018, 300 people with serious health problems will receive socio-medical guidance, information and counseling support tailored to the needs and situations they face, under the „SMS for Life – Life Reserve Fund for Adults” project implemented by M.A.M.E. Association. The project will be supported by the Vodafone Romania Foundation with a grant of 20,000 euros.
The support provided to the 300 people will also involve allocating short numbers for SMS donations. This component is aimed at helping these persons raise the money they need to pay for medical treatments or surgery procedures made outside the country. Launched by M.A.M.E. Association in 2013, the „SMS for Life – Life Reserve Fund for Adults” is an initiative that had over 800 beneficiaries so far, adult patients diagnosed with serious diseases. Of them, 150 managed to raise the funds they needed, as a result of the consulting support received, and 50 were eligible for a short number allocation for SMS donations. In April 2018, when the project launched this year is planned to end, the total number of beneficiaries will exceed 1,000 people.
Over 400,000 SMS messages for donations have been sent during the four years since the launch of the „SMS for Life” initiative. More than 800,000 euros have been raised for patients who needed medical treatments that could not be provided in the country and thus they received an extra chance of living by accessing the medical services at clinics abroad.
The Vodafone Romania Foundation supported the „SMS for Life” project also in the 2014-2016 period and the financing for the three years was 32,000 euros.
The Vodafone Romania Foundation is a Romanian nongovernmental organization with charitable status, distinct and independent of the company’s commercial operations, established in 1998. During the 19 years of activity, Vodafone Romania Foundation has financed 1,046 programs run by 660 NGOs throughout the country, in the fields of health, education, social services. The projects had 2 million beneficiaries – children, young and old people, physically, socially or economically disadvantaged persons. So far, Vodafone Romania has invested more than 26 million euros in projects run by nonprofit partner organizations. Vodafone Romania Foundation is part of Vodafone Group Foundation, an international organization that has been active for 25 years through its subsidiaries in 27 countries. More details about the Foundation’s programs are available fundatia-vodafone.ro, http://jurnaldebine.fundatia-vodafone.ro/ and www.facebook.com/fundatiavodafone.
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, it provided socio-psycho-medical services for approximately 3,000 beneficiaries. It also donated high-performance medical equipment that benefits more than 10,000 patients annually. It ran an awareness and awareness campaign among over 5,000 students on the adoption of a healthy lifestyle and a campaign to prevent and combat the bullying phenomenon affecting children with chronic diseases or disabilities. More details on the association’s activity and results so far are available at: www.asociatiamame.com or www.facebook.com/AsocMAME.
