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The Tobinco Pharmaceuticals Limited in collaboration with the International Sickle Cell Centre (ISCC), a non-profit organisation have donated medication for students living with sickle cell disease (SCD) at the Achimota School.
The move, which is to create awareness of sickle cell disease (SCD) is also to educate the public of SCD and support students with the disease with medication.
It also forms part of the corporate social responsibility of the two institutions.
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At a short ceremony held at the school for the supply and donation of the medication, the Sickle Cell Support Group which seeks to educate students on SCD and how it can be managed was also launched.
Speaking after the donation, Deputy Managing Director-Marketing for Tobinco Pharmaceuticals Limited, Dr Christopher Mensah, who notd that their partnership with ISCC was part of the company’s corporate social responsibility said the gesture was also part of the company’s goal to ensure that citizens lived healthy lives.
“At Tobinco, we have CSR ingrained in us and we realise that sickle cell is one area that has become prevalent. Yet, it is not pushed and supported enough. So we decided to partner with them and give all the support we can,” he said.
The Student Health Coordinator of Achimota School, Peter Adjetey, thanked Tobinco Pharmaceuticals Limited and the ISCC for the kind gesture and assured that the medication would be put to good use.
Meanwhile, he noted that the education of students on Sickle Cell had been absorbed by the Red Cross Society group in the school, advising the students to be good ambassadors of sickle cell education wherever they find themselves.
For her part, The Founder and Director of ISCC, Dr Mary Ansong, said for many years, SCD had claimed many innocent lives in the country, adding that there were currently over 18,000 children born with SCD.
She said apart from the disease being a critical one, the cultural beliefs that were attached to it affected families in diverse ways, which negatively impacted many lives.
“Research has shown that the current statistics we have would double by 2050 if the sickle cell cycle is not
truncated. We, therefore, organised the Choices of the Future Initiative to create more advocacy on SCD and provide students with SCD all the needed support, especially since September is sickle cell awareness month,” she said.
The Co-founder of ISCC, Dr Martha Wiafe, said it was also surprising to know that most citizens were not cognisant of their genotype.
Again, she said because most people were not aware of their genotype, they ended up making reproductive decisions that sometimes run through generations.
“So Choices For the Future targets teenagers to imbibe in them the education and skills on how to manage sickle cell so that at a very young age, they’ll have all the knowledge and information they need to live and have a normal life,” she added.
She said the initiative also allowed persons with or without SCD to seek support and counselling on the sickle cell disease through what they called the sickle cell support group.
“The support group would help us provide continual education and offer the required medical support to needy students with SCD who cannot afford their medical care to ensure they live healthy lives,” she said.
Ghana|Atinaonline.com