It’s Personal

“It’s not personal, it’s just business”.  Everyone is familiar with this statement, made famous in many forms by Mario Puzo and the Godfather movies.  It is an approach that is sometimes taken in situations to eliminate the human element, to remove the personal perspective when hard decisions need to be made.

For the Icla da Silva Foundation, our “business” is extremely personal and hard decisions are made every single day.  It’s very personal…

• It’s leading with devotion to organize and host 2500 marrow drives because you know there just aren’t enough people on the registry to cure every patient who needs a match.
• It’s stretching every available dollar so that parents who are waiting for their child’s daily chemo treatments at a speciality clinic far from their home, don’t have to sleep in the car.
• It’s about “utilizing every possible resource to help save as many lives as possible” – Airam da Silva, Oct, 2016

The mission of the Icla da Silva Foundation is to save lives by recruiting bone marrow donors and providing support services to children and adults with leukemia and other diseases treatable by marrow transplants.

Our History is Very Personal

The Foundation began in 1992, in recognition of a 13-year old Brazilian girl named Icla da Silva, who bravely fought, and lost, her battle with leukemia.  Icla came to NYC with her family to find a matching bone marrow donor. She was enthusiastic and hopeful until the end, and it was her desire that her family do what they could for the other patients that Icla had met during her treatments.

Airam da Silva, Icla’s brother, is the President of the non profit foundation and he has been pushing to meet his sisters wishes for the past 25 years.

Our Future Remains Personal

The Icla da Silva Foundation has grown to become the largest recruitment center for the Be the Match Registry, working tirelessly to help it grow to become the largest bone marrow registry in the world.

Last year, we registered over 35,000 potential donors to the Be the Match registry, most of ethnic diversity, where the need is most pronounced.

We were able to provide more than 140 nights of lodging, 2400 patent meals, and 56,000 miles of transportation, getting patients and their families to treatment centers around the country.

This very personal journey includes thousands of hours meeting with patients, listening to their challenges and helping them navigate the logistics of the the healthcare system.

This year, we would like to be able to assist more than 200 patients who are in desperate need for a matching bone marrow transplant.

You Can Make it Personal

There are three simple ways that you can help us to continue our mission:

#1: You can join the registry online through our website

#3: Or, you can consider a financial donation to help us continue to recruit more donors, and to provide support services to patients and their families.

Thanks for your support, It’s Personal.