Campaign for Daniel Raduta (#draduta)

I was informed of a donation campaign that takes place in Romania by the organizers of World Blogging Forum. Here is their statement:

It is the cause of a young Romanian, called Daniel Raduta ( http://danielraduta.ro/?page_id=2) who was diagnosticated with leuchemia and needs a bone marrow transplant.

The online campaign has helped him raise 70000 eu so far, but he needs around 150000 eu.

It?s the case that brought a new era to charity in Eastern Europe. It?s proof that people can save a life with or without the help of officials. When they turn their backs on us, we grow stronger and more ambitious. And we win.

For the last few weeks the Romanian Internet community managed to unite and do their best to save the life of Daniel R?du??. The twittersphere became the 30 year-old IT engineer?s best friend. Ever since he was diagnosed with leukaemia, the vast majority of the 10.000 Twitter users have helped in every way they could: donations, telling friends, retweeting and writing on their personal weblogs or organising charity events.

We want to help Daniel live to raise his little boy who will be born in less than two weeks.

13 days and ?70.000 – the outcome of a common effort of people that have never met Daniel, but can relate to his story. Every one of us has had a relative who suffered from cancer. Every one of us would like to see things change. We don?t want to wait for ?the system? to take action ? it might just be too late!

Considering the fact that in Romania the minimum salary is just a bit over ?170 and the average one goes slightly over ?400, it is a big effort. Daniel needs, however, ?150.000 for the bone marrow transplant that he is forced to ?purchase? for himself, abroad. Life does not fall out of trees, but it can be saved by a tree of hope grown by people.

Ninety thousand more

For this, we have to turn to the borderless kingdom known as the World Wide Web. The hash tag #draduta shows the interest of the Romanian online community for the case. Every hour tweets flow, updating everyone with the latest news, with how much money is left to be collected, how the campaign grows and how many more people are interested.

Daniel?s cause on Facebook has over 7800 people at this moment. There are over 100 weblog articles, starting with Daniel?s own page, visited by more than 25.000 people already.

Why the online communities and not the Health System?

…because Romania does not have a functional database with bone marrow donors. Because, in Romania, a bone marrow transplant can only be performed if the patient has a 100% compatible (kindred) donor.

The online community moves fast. Updates run smoothly, people can suggest, comment, relate, brainstorm, be a part of it all. But it?s not enough to raise as much as that small fortune to go to the international life-selling marketplace and buy a life. We got help, from the editors from major publications, such as Deutsche Welle or Realitatea.net.
Also, an online-exclusive ?clan? made of seven ?fairies?, mostly journalists, intelligent women, with very strong connections, have shown great commitment. Diana Stoleru, a former member of ASLS Romania, the one in charge with supporting the case, works tirelessly day and night to ensure everything gets done in time. The key word here is TIME.

We only have a few months to get Daniel to transplant. We need all the help we can get, to save a life dear to us and to prove that we can contribute, doing everything with its online, magical powers. This is why we would be really grateful if you could support this campaign, on your blog, on Twitter of Facebook. Your many readers, friends and followers may react and help Daniel.