Our influence

The purpose of this project is to involve the non-governmental sector in raising awareness for marrow donation as well as registration of marrow donors through the Marrow Donation Program at the Scientific Foundation SPIROSKI.

It is expected to create a network of recruitment centers that will perform education and registration, and may later be involved in sampling the cheek for analysis. The involvement of the non-governmental sector in the donation of marrow, in addition to the existing state registry, will increase the chances of patients with malignant diseases in the country and abroad for a larger number of patients with appropriate marrow donors and their successful treatment. The first step in this project is to create a web portal of the Marrow Donation Program in English in compliance with the standards and recommendations of the World Association of Marrow Donors (WMDA) as well as compliance with the legal provisions of the existing law on taking and transplanting human body parts for treatment. After the completion of the web portal, its content will be translated into Macedonian and Albanian. Materials will be printed and electronic attachments will be prepared for organizing donation actions.

A public discussion for marrow donation will be organized in the non-governmental and governmental sector. During the next 15 months, donation actions will be organized by the two partner student organizations on the entire territory of the country by signing standardized consent forms. Donation actions will be realized among Macedonian citizens aged 18-60, with special attention to the inclusion of donors from the communities (Albanians, Roma, Vlachs and others). Their data will be stored in a marrow donor database. Collection of swab samples will be performed in this project after the public discussion. Expected results from this project are:

  • Functional web portal for the Marrow Donation Program in English, Macedonian and Albanian.
  • Standards compliant with the World Marine Donor Association (WMDA) for the preparation of educational materials and for signed marrow donation consent.
  • Printed materials and prepared electronic attachments for organizing donation actions.
  • A public debate was held on the mechanisms of marrow donation in the non-governmental and governmental sector.
  • Realized donor actions for recruiting voluntary marrow donors.
  • Registered marrow donors.

With the establishment of SFS – MARROW DONOR PROGRAM will be achieved one of the goals of the Scientific Foundation SPIROSKI, which together with the publication of scientific journals provides scientific research in the field of the main tissue-compatible complex and transplantation of cells, tissues and organs. The results will be used by patients who are indicated for stem cell treatment in our country, in neighboring countries and around the world. Involvement of medical students from Skopje and Stip, and through them the other student organizations throughout the country, will enable raising awareness of the need for bone marrow donation and bone marrow transplantation.

The SFS – MARROW DONOR PROGRAM project will not fund genetic and other testing of marrow donors, as well as the necessary specific software for the full functioning of the Marrow Donor Registry, but will be funded by the Scientific Foundation SPIROSKI, from projects, donations and other sources.

Civil Society Code

Scientific Foundation SPIROSKI is a signatory of the Civil Society Code from 2021.

The Civil Society Code aims to strengthen the system of self-regulation and to contribute to greater professionalism and accountability. One of the biggest challenges we face today is building trust with the citizens and the general public. As civil society organizations that operate at the local and national level, we need to ensure broader accountability for our work and thus confirm our public interest in the policy-making processes that are of interest to citizens, for which we receive resources. This Code is voluntary, and every civil society organization that joins it assumes responsibility for respecting and practicing the commitments, values and standards set out in it. The Code is a living matter and will be promoted and promoted by civil society organizations consistently and continuously.

The preparation of this Code of Civil Society Organizations emerged as an initiative of the organizations that are part of the informal network for transparency and accountability of civil society organizations that was established within the program “Sustainable Civil Society – State Financing of CSOs”.

Within this program, 29 re-grants were realized to improve transparency and accountability. And grantees as a critical mass of civic associations working to improve their transparency and accountability were the basis for forming the network. Additionally, organizations that already cover the topic and 

work in the field of good governance and self-regulation have joined the network.

Fifty-one CSOs have already signed up, and any interested organizations wishing to access the Code will be able to do so by completing the following statement. The statements are deposited in the Macedonian Center for International Cooperation at the following email: asv@mcms.mk and are considered by the signatory organizations as part of an informal network for transparency and accountability of civil society organizations.

CSOs that will access the Code need to report on the implementation of the Code in their annual organizational reports, announce on their social media. The next steps for the development of the Code are the establishment of a mechanism for monitoring the implementation of the Code after it is promoted and shared with the wider civil society.

Our research

An explanation for our scientific work

How we fund our research

Most of the financing of the SFS – Marrow Donor Registry is covered by the funds of the Scientific Foundation SPIROSKI intended for financing this registry. A significant part of the funds for 2021 and 2022 are covered by the project of Civica Mobilitas SFS – MARROW DONOR PROGRAM [SFS-MDP]. This program provides funds for both partners Association of Citizens Macedonian Medical Student Association – MMSA, Skopje and Student Organized Medical Association SOMA, Stip. The smallest part of the financing is realized by donating money through the donor telephones and through the website of the donor registry.

The strategic determination of SFS – Marrow Donor Registry is to ensure self-sustainability in financing through money donations and through scientific projects with a significant reduction in funding from the Science Foundation SPIROSKI.

Impact from our research

Marrow donation related projects

  • Resolving ambiguities from HLA genotypes in the Macedonian population [CRP / MAC03-01]. DNA-HLA analysis was performed on 850 respondents from the Republic of Macedonia, divided into four groups: 1. Unrelated healthy persons (220); 2. Bone marrow transplant patients and their related potential donors (siblings and parents) (350); 3. Patients with rheumatoid arthritis, tuberculosis, cardiomyopathy and other diseases (150); and 4. Resolving ambiguities (130).
  • SFS – Marrow Donation Program [SFS-MDP]. Civica Mobilitas (CM-AKT-06). The purpose of this project is to involve the non-governmental sector in raising awareness for donating marrow as well as registering marrow donors through the SFS – Marrow Donation Program at the Science Foundation SPIROSKI. It is expected to create a network of collection centers that will perform education and registration, and may later be involved in cheek sampling for analysis. The involvement of the non-governmental sector in the marrow donation, in addition to the existing state registry, will increase the chances of patients with malignant diseases in the country and abroad for a larger number of patients with appropriate marrow donors and their successful treatment.