OREANDA-NEWS. June 21, 2013. Running from January 1, 2013 until March 31, 2013 MasterCard donated 10 kopecks (3 cents) from every payment made in Russian POS with MasterCard® and Maestro® cards, issued by Russian banks. On the start of the campaign it was reported that MasterCard will donate at least 30 million rubles, but the final amount was determined by the actual number of POS transactions over the past three months. Make Purchases and Give Hope is the first charity program of such scale conducted by MasterCard in Russia.

MasterCard’s charity campaign Make Purchases and Give Hope involved such partners as Novikov Group and Ginza Project restaurants, BP gas stations, Svyaznoy Bank, Petrokommerts Bank, VTB24, Alfa Bank, MTS and others.

"Cancer remains the number one cause of death and, despite its prevalence, is still an unexplored disease. By joining forces with Stand Up To Cancer we got closer to our common goal ? victory over cancer. MasterCard will donate 34 000 000 Rubles to Stand Up To Cancer to support translational research in oncology. We are very gratitude to all our partners who joined the initiative and to all cardholders who supported the campaign, — said Ilya Riaby, Head of MasterCard in Russia, Armenia and Belarus.

The money from MasterCard will be donated to scientific research funded by Stand Up To Cancer. Half of the funds will be granted to TRIO (Translational Research in Oncology) to hiring strong research staff teams at cancer clinics in Russia and training for innovative research trials, particularly in the field of breast cancer. This effort will achieve an ultimate goal of having local clinical research teams that are self-sufficient and capable of participating confidently in other studies to the benefit of their institutions, physicians and most importantly, patients. Another part of the funds will be used for cancer researches abroad Russia.

"We are pleased that our program is being implemented in Russia with support of MasterCard. Stand Up To Cancer is designed to accelerate innovative research in the field of cancer treatment that will make the reality of the rapid application of new treatments and save lives now, ? says Rusty Robertson, co-founder of Stand Up To Cancer. ? We are focused on transparency and the highest standards in matters of finance and are confident that we can help a large number of patients".

Michael Berner, Citi Russia’s Consumer Business Manager, says: "We are thankful to MasterCard for the opportunity to participate in this campaign. The Citi Foundation is focused on youth education and improving financial literacy in the countries across the globe. However, the importance of efforts aimed at fighting cancer can hardly be underestimated. We will continue to support similar initiatives in future".