The Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry Charitable Trust was founded in July 1998 in Armenia as a non-profit, non-sectarian, non-governmental and independent organization. Its mission is to save precious Armenian lives by creating a bone marrow donor registry which, with the volunteer recruitment of Armenian donors worldwide, will increase the pool of existing international donors and thus give a chance of survival to patients with Leukemia or other blood related diseases. Although Armenians are considered Caucasian, their unique genetic make up makes it very hard for them to find matches for transplantation. The Trust's honorary chairperson is the First Lady of the Republic of Armenia, Dr. Bella Kocharian and the chairperson is Dr. Frieda Jordan, a biochemist whose expertise is the establishment of bone marrow registries. The ABMDR is a unique project in the sense that it links the Diaspora with Armenia, making each individual in any part of the world dependent on the other for survival. That is why we have the blessing and the encouragement of Karekin Vehapar and President Kocharian, among many others, not only to go ahead but to realize it in the very near future. To date, the Trust has raised close to US$60,000. Close to half of that amount was generously donated by George and Carolann Najarian who are great supporters of the project, and the other half from a number of individuals and organizations. Our immediate concern is to get the necessary funds to establish the laboratory facilities in the US and Armenia where the technicians will start the recruitment and registration of donors. The plan is to have 10,000 donors within four years. With the first 500 donors, our registry will be linked with the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) and as such be accessible to all from around the world. Each donor costs the Registry $75-$100. The facilities and the recruitment of personnel will cost an additional $150,000. Once the Registry is fully established the only cost will be that of maintaining the personnel, and for that, the Trust has foreseen and planned for various ways to become self sufficient. We would welcome the help and contributions of any organization or individual out there who is interested in being part of this historic project.