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How will this funding help?

Fifty community groups and organizations across England and Wales have received a share of £685,000 funding as part of the Government’s commitment to continue to address health inequalities and promote organ, blood and stem cell donation among communities black and asian

The Community Grants Scheme, formerly known as the Community Investment Scheme, is administered by NHS Blood and Transplant and helps fund community, religious or belief organizations to deliver projects that encourage more Black and Asian people to become donors.

More donors are urgently needed because the shortage of donors from the Black and Asian communities means that patients from these communities may have worse outcomes. People of the same ethnic background are more likely to be compatible.

• NHSBT can only provide the most compatible blood for people with sickle cell around half the time. Sickle cell disease is the fastest growing genetic condition in the UK. It is more common in people of black African or black Caribbean origin. The NHS needs a record 250 blood donations a day to treat people with sickle cell.
• Black and Asian people wait longer for organ transplants. People of black, Asian, mixed or other ethnic minority origin make up one-third of all people on the transplant waiting list, due to difficulties in finding a match.
• White patients have an 80-90% chance of finding a stem cell match from a stranger. However, Black, Asian and mixed race people can only find a stem cell match from a stranger about 30-40% of the time.

The Community Grants Program scheme has shown that enabling grassroots organizations to advocate for organ, blood and stem cell donation in a culturally relevant way increases awareness and engagement, helping to move towards greater equality in health and a more diverse donor base.

A total of £685,000 has been distributed among community projects in England and Wales. The full list of groups can be found at the end of this release (1). Anthony Nolan once again supports the program by contributing 40% of the contribution to projects that work on the donation of stem cells.

The funds available for each area were around:

• Blood Donation Projects – £242,000
• Living Kidney Donation Projects – £113,000
• Deceased Organ Donation Projects – £128,000
• Stem Cell Donation Projects – £102,000
• Combined grant projects (covering more than one type of grant) – £100,000

The history of an organization

One example of the many organizations that receive funding is We Are Donors, which is a national network of university student groups working to raise awareness of organ and blood donation to increase donor numbers across the UK.

To raise awareness of organ donation, We Are Donors will use its ten local groups in England and Wales to deliver educational talks and workshops to pupils aged 11-18 in areas known to have a higher proportion of people of Black African descent. and Caribbean.

To raise awareness about donating blood, his program will target black African and Caribbean college students between the ages of 18 and 25. This will take place across its nine established England-based university groups. These groups will aim to educate, raise awareness and register new blood donors through specific educational events and talks.

Press Release Notes

The list of organizations that receive funding is:

• ACLT (African and Caribbean Leukemia Fund)
• Adventures in Compassionate Trading (AiCC)
• African Center for Development and Research
• black blood affairs
• Black Health Initiative (BHI)
• Caribbean and African Health Network (CAHN)
• Cianna’s smile
• Equality Council UK (ECUK)
• Father Hudson’s Care – Brushstrokes Community Project
• Religions Forum for London
• Inspired by JLG LTD
• Legacy901 CIC
• RAFFA International Development Agency
• Rochdale Dawah Center
• sickle cell society
• sickle cell suffolk
• toni annette limited
• BSI
• British Islamic Medical Association
• Halal Dinner Club (part of the Leaf Coaching CIC)
• ILM-Ornate Lane Ltd (breeding scouts)
• Jain and Hindu Alliance for Organ Donation (JHOD)
• wales kidney
• UK Muslim Women’s Network
• Navnat Vanik Association
• QED
• sadhu vaswani
• shade 7 limited
• Shree Swaminarayan Mandir Kingsbury
• University of Bedfordshire
• action on blood
• Donor Research at the University of Brighton
• Impact4Life Wellness CIC
• Medway African and Caribbean Association (MACA)
• Ujima Radio
• We are Donors
• action on blood
• ACLT (African and Caribbean Leukemia Fund)
• Consortium of Muslim Professionals
• Jain and Hindu Alliance for Organ Donation (JHOD)
• Association of Muslim Doctors
• a blackburn voice
• UPAHAAR
• Gift of Life Donation (GOLD) and Imperial College Renal and Transplant Center
• Jain and Hindu Alliance for Organ Donation (JHOD) and Royal Free Hospital Trust
• Newham Community Project
• Nishkam Healthcare Trust
• shade 7 limited
• stories to inspire
• Vanik Council (UK)