SCHAF is focused on the 3 pillars of Prevention, Care and Research. SCHAF’s Prevention initiatives include Awareness & Education programmes, establishment of Know Your Genotype (KYG) Clubs, and the use of ‘Point of Care’ Diagnosis for Genotype determination as well as Genetic Counseling. To further drive prevention through awareness programmes, SCHAF took the message of Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) to National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Orientation Camp Iseyin Oyo State for the second time on Wednesday 7th December 2022.
The awareness programme featured health talk titled “A Community Approach to the Reduction of Sickle Cell Disease in Oyo State Nigeria: NYSC as a Vehicle of Change" and was delivered to about 4,000 corp members at once. Soldiers and members of NYSC staff also benefitted from the health awareness talks delivered by the Vice President Pharm Mrs Helen Oduntan. The corpers were charged to know their genotypes, make informed decisions on future partners for procreation and spread the prevention message to the nooks and crannies of their places of primary assignment when posted.
At the end of the lecture, a call for volunteers was raised and about 41 corp members voluntarily gave their consent to further spread the message of SCHAF on SCD to their various communities and places of primary assignment.