The Sickle Cell Society of Lagos State University (LASU) has made a passionate appeal to the Lagos State government and philanthropists to award scholarship to university students with sickle cell disorder (SCD).
The society also pleaded with government and health institutions to support SCD sufferers with the provision of medication to ameliorate their discomfort while studying.
The awareness campaign, titled “Sickle cell disorder: The battles, the fears, the triumphs,’’ was organised by Lifestyle Innovation Limited, in conjunction with LASU Sickle Cell Society, to sensitize staff and students as well as celebrate World Health Day.
President of LASU Sickle Cell Society, Dorcas Durodola, said students with the disorder are brilliant but because they are in and out of university, it affects their performance.
She appealed to the state government to support the education of students with the disorder, subsidise their medications, stop the discrimination against them and employ them after graduation.
Durodola, a 200 level Medicine and Surgery student, also pleaded with the university’s management to allow students wit the disorder that missed exams due to the crisis to retake their exams.
The president appealed to LASU’s management to set aside a day for the association to carry out an awareness campaign, stating, “Many students are not coming out to disclose their status.”
In her remarks, the convener and founder of Lifestyle Innovation Limited, Dr, Layo Abiola, said the awareness became necessary seeing the trouble that students with sickle cell go through in their quest to achieve academic excellence and seek a path for life and living.
Dr. Abiola, a lecture in the Department of Human Kinetics, Sports and Health Education, explained that, being a mother to a warrior in the past made her see the need to assist them get qualitative care.
According her, Nigeria, with the highest burden of the disorder, has been declared the epicentre and leads the world in the number of cases of sickle cell disorder, with an estimated 150,000 babies with SCD born annually in the country.
She said the programme would involve instituting and showcasing the LASU Sickle Cell Society, whose objective is to network, educate and update warriors on trends in SCD management as well as provide emotional and physical support when the need arises.
“It may interest us to know that LSI has been in talks with a leading international organization in Nigeria on intervention activities that will help reduce the burden of this disorder in Nigeria. We are leaving no stone unturned at ensuring that LASU benefits from the first set of such intervention programme through the citing of a Diagnostic Center in LASU,’’ Abiola stated.
Vice Chancellor of Lagos State University, who was represented by the Deputy VC (Administration), Prof. Adenike Boyo, pledged that the institution would continue to support the society to make life better for staff and students.
She added: “This event is historic as it marks the first time the Lagos State University Sickle Cell Society will be organise a programme of this nature, which I consider very critical to the lives and wellbeing of students and staff of the university who are warriors.
“As a university, we will continue to support platforms like this that seek to make life better and easier for you. Under my administration, you will not be marginalized in any way.”