NGOs To Establish Sickle Cell Centre In Kaduna

Two Non-Governmental
Organisations (NGOs), Ade Adebisi Sickle Cell Foundation and Sickle Cell Patients Health Promotion Centre have entered into partnership to establish a sickle cell centre in Kaduna.
Mr Ade Adebisi, the Coordinator of the foundation, told newsmen in Kaduna last Monday, that the centre would be adequately equipped with modern facilities to combat sickle cell ailment.
“The need to provide proper medication, hope, support and succour for the people suffering from this disease is the brain behind the partnership,” he said.
Adebisi said that the partnership would include the establishment of a mobile clinic that would offer medical support to sickle cell patients in rural areas.
He said that if given adequate support, sickle cell patients, would be able to overcome challenges caused by the ailment.
“What these people need is mental support and not pity; the society should support them to overcome their challenges by believing in their abilities,” he said.
Hajiya Badiya, the Founder of Sickle Cell Patients Health Promotion Centre, said that the organisation had catered for over 3,000 patients across the country in the last seven years.
She said that the centre had supported the patients with free drugs and other services.
Badiya said that the partnership would enhance the centre’s outreach programme to the rural areas, where she said, sickle cell patients are not getting the required medical support.
Dr Fatima Yahaya of the Paediatrics Unit of Barau Dikko Specialist Hospital, Kaduna, also said that the Kaduna State Government had established three sickle cell clinics in Zaria, Kafanchan and Kaduna.
She called for the dissemination of right information on sickle cell as a means of curtailing its spread.
Dr Abbas Gwani, a researcher, said that there was hope in the fight against sickle cell, stressing that “new grounds are being broken in the area of research and development on sickle cell.”
He said that a drug had been produced that could help sickle cell patients to manage the ailment.
“We have gone far in our research, we have been able to identify the cell membrane that is responsible for the sickle cell and a drug has been produced to tackle the challenge,” Gwani said.