Fit to Achieve Sickle Cell Foundation Brings Hope to Patients

Mary Nnah

It is one thing to be born with a lifelong debilitating condition such as sickle cell and have the right support, whether its free specialist care, access to welfare, a decent home, wrap around support in employment and education.

It is another kettle of fish entirely, to be born with sickle cell and born into poverty with no access to basic day to day needs, such as food, a decent home, clean water, education and healthcare.
These are basic needs that can improve one’s quality of life and health outcomes and in sickle cell, could prevent early mortality.

In Nigeria, a country with the highest prevalence of sickle cell in the world, where 17 babies are born per hour with sickle cell, coupled with the reality that in 2018, Nigeria was listed as the poorest country in the world with 86.9 million people living in extreme poverty, it can be very dire and incapacitating for under-privileged communities to survive daily if you live with sickle cell.

This has become many families’ realties. We have seen many children die prematurely as a result of sickle cell complications and a lack of access to healthcare.

This is why Fit to Achieve (FTA) Sickle Cell Foundation was established. The charity’s approach is community based and provides aid and education to children and teenagers who are marginalized and live with sickle cell, with a particular focus through grassroots activism.

FTA’s commitment to driving change on the ground means they consistently work to make change within their communities, rather than at a high-level policy or organizational level.

“We know we cannot solve all the problems of our sickle cell communities, so we built our vision around supporting children and families living with sickle cell from severely deprived rural villages and communities, starting in Nigeria. We have delivered our programs across a number of states in the north, east and west of Nigeria. Our work is primarily focused inrural underserved towns and villages in Abuja.
Our vision statement reads ‘to reach out to individualsand their families affected by sickle cell anaemia in Africa’s underserved rural communities.’ “ – founder June Okochi.

As we know, Sickle cell disease doesn’t just impact the individual, it can wreak havoc on the lives of those around them also. For kids, up to a certain age, they are reliant on their care givers to support, assist and help them manage their condition. This can be especially difficult in rural and under-served areas of Nigeria, struggling with many aspects of life before sickle cell is even factored in.
Fit to Achieve’s work is to provide support, in the form of education and awareness, health programs and aid to those impacted by sickle cell and to help encourage warriors to lead a healthy life despite their condition.
Founded in 2015, by June Okochi who herself suffers from sickle cell, she wanted to use her own experience to help, support and educate others. The charity was registered in 2016 by the Corporate Affairs Commission.
FTA has been reaching out initially to rural warriors in Nigeria to support them. The charity has been able to provide a number of programs and support initiatives which has improved care, support and help to those who might otherwise have been overlooked.

Offering both educational support and screening services, Fit to Achieve has been fighting both the absence of any real health care for these warriors and also tackling the stigma or lack of information surrounding their own condition. Providing much needed supplies in malaria prevention kits, wellness packs,home remedy packs for the management of sickle celland pain, folic acid and routine medication, including on-the-ground work by the team have helped change the lives of those within these communities through targeted and proactive outreach.

“The impact of our programs hasled to an improvement of the health and wellbeing of many children and young people we serve – through a reduction in the number of crisis, hospitalisations and missed school days.” – June Okochi.

FTA has also started providing scholarships for school children whose families are unable to afford them an education. This will create life chances for these children too.

Anyone who suffers with sickle cell knows the struggles that the condition can bring. In these struggling communities in Nigeria and the economy we currently live in, simple routine medication or pain relief can be difficult to acquire and finding a way to live healthily in the face of daily pain can seem like too much to overcome.
Fit to Achieve has been helping and supporting sickle cell warriors of all ages but is keenly aware of the added demands of offering support to those younger warriorsbetween the ages of 0- 17 who are still struggling to understand what their condition is and how they can overcome it.