The Ana Rukavina Foundation has been operating successfully for five years. The occasion was marked by a press conference which was held today to announce the sixth consecutive humanitarian concert “I Want Life” and cooperation with Nova TV.
On the occasion of the fifth successful year of the operation of the Ana Rukavina Foundation, the representatives of the Foundation (Marija Rukavina – Director of the Foundation and Mirando Mrsić, MD, PhD – Medical Director of the Foundation) and Nova TV (Iva Gačić – News Director at Nova TV and Siniša Svilan – Program Director at Nova TV) announced the traditional, sixth consecutive year of the humanitarian concert “I Want Life”. Relying on the high quality production support of Nova TV, the organizers have promised that on the night of December 16th the audience can look forward to a memorable night of music, high quality performers and a wonderful atmosphere. A live broadcast of the concert on Nova TV will be available to all of those who are not able to come to Ban Jelačić Square.
By calling the humanitarian hotline number 060 9000 (6.15 kuna plus VAT) between December 1st and 24th you will have a chance to help fulfill Ana’s wish. Your generous contribution will enable the Foundation to finish its worthy task of (HLA) tissue typing all of the collected blood samples and determining the tissue compatibility antigen between the donors and the patients.
The representatives of the Ana Rukavina Foundation and Nova TV announced a new chapter in the socially responsible activity of the Foundation – the development of hematology.
Mrs. Marija Rukavina briefly summarized the work of the Foundation until now. “The Croatian Registry lists 33,265 voluntary donors, and 26,275 of those samples have been tissue typed. In order to tissue type the remaining 6,999 blood samples, we need to raise almost 7 million kuna more. Today we can say that the Registry is already operational. Until now we have had 13 donations – six for our patients in Croatia, and seven for patients abroad. The cord blood bank is functional and I hope that we will reach 10,000 stored samples very soon.”
Mirando Mrsić, Medical Director of the Foundation, announced a new chapter of the Foundation’s work. “A new challenge is ahead of us. We want the Foundation to focus on another project as well – giving scholarships to young scientists studying leukemia and lymphoma, and financing research in that field. I would like the Foundation to be a small Croatian Alfred Nobel, hoping that it will outlive me and all of us, and that Ana’s name will live on forever as a beacon of hope, strength and encouragement. We are again at the beginning, but if we had not been brave five years ago, we would not be here today.”
Iva Gačić, News Director at Nova TV, added the following: “Social responsibility is embedded in each individual segment of the work of Nova TV and we are pleased that we can contribute to furthering vitally important results in an action which has mobilized Croatia like no other action before. In addition to showing us how powerful a desire for life may be, Ana also showed us the power of the media, which play a key role in informing citizens and motivating them to do their bit for the good of society. This motivation is also important to us as a television station which operates at a national level and enters every Croatian home.”
Siniša Svilan, Program Director at Nova TV, pointed out the following: “As of today, Nova TV and the Ana Rukavina Foundation are partners, which means that we will pull together to fight for the lives of our citizens by providing them with timely and detailed information. We will give production support in organizing the humanitarian concert “I Want Life” on Ban Jelačić Square, and provide a live broadcast of the concert on Nova TV on December 16, 2011, starting at 9 PM. Also, by tuning into Nova TV, the citizens will be able to follow all of the Foundation’s activities. They will hear the stories of the brave people who have won the fight against this disease. We will inform them about how they themselves can contribute to this important fight for life. In cooperation with the Foundation, our duty and obligation is to continue the mission of spreading knowledge about the role of each citizen in saving human lives, and to offer support in achieving the new goals of the Foundation in the field of hematology.”