Sickle cell foundation files school comic strips with NaCCA and presses for curriculum lessons

Pinned summary · as of 15:38

Amos Andoh, founder of the Focus on Sickle Cell Foundation (FoSCel), used a Tuesday press event held at Accra's Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park to urge that lessons on sickle cell disease be added to school learning in Ghana. He argued that public awareness drives and hospital care are not enough and that pupils should get accurate, age-appropriate information well before they reach adulthood. The foundation has since filed its comic-strip teaching materials with the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) for review.

What we know

• Mr Andoh told journalists in Accra on Tuesday, 29 September, that sickle cell disease is more than a medical matter: he described it as a health, education and generational issue, and said schools must play a part.
• He said discussions about genotype compatibility tend to start only once young adults are courting or heading to marriage, which he considers too late. In his view the goal is to equip young people with knowledge, not to instruct them on whom to marry.
• FoSCel has designed a comic-strip teaching model aimed at pupils in basic school, junior high and senior high. Its content covers the disease, genotypes and their compatibility, stigma and wrong beliefs about the condition.
• The foundation has formally handed its comic strips to NaCCA so the council can review them and consider them for use in Ghanaian schools. They are part of FoSCel's wider proposal to bring sickle cell education into the national curriculum.
• An earlier version of the comic model was tried out with pupils in the Effutu area, and both MyJoyOnline and The Custodian place the trial last year.
• The health ministry has issued screening and case-management guidelines for the disease. Mr Andoh said patients still suffer serious complications, among them stroke and kidney problems.
• Mr Andoh commended the health ministry, the Ghana Health Service and the NHIA (National Health Insurance Authority) over improved access to care, and welcomed the addition of hydroxyurea and other key sickle cell medicines to the NHIS benefits package.
• He advised patients and their caregivers to keep NHIS membership current so they can obtain the covered medicines and services.
• Mr Andoh put the yearly number of babies born with sickle cell disease in Ghana at roughly 18,000.

What's disputed / unconfirmed

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  Reports differ on the timing and recipient of the hand-over. An earlier MyJoyOnline report said the comic material went to the National AIDS Control Council on Sunday, while The Custodian said the submission to NaCCA came the day before the briefing, following a proposal to that council's Director-General earlier this year. MyJoyOnline's newer report names NaCCA and gives no date.
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  An earlier MyJoyOnline report gave the annual number of affected births as between 15,000 and 18,000, attributing it to health-sector and WHO-linked reports, whereas its later report and The Custodian give about 18,000.
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  MyJoyOnline reports that FoSCel says the Effutu trial in selected schools drew encouraging feedback, held learners' attention, sparked classroom discussion and improved understanding of genotype. These are the foundation's own claims and no other report has verified them.
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  MyJoyOnline reports that FoSCel is waiting for NaCCA's professional assessment and says it is ready to make whatever revisions the council requires; The Custodian has not carried this.
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  Only MyJoyOnline reports that Mr Andoh spoke with a parliamentary committee chairperson who showed interest in backing the idea, and that he said the disease has no widely available cure in Ghana; The Custodian has not carried either point.
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  Only The Custodian reports that NaCCA representatives attended the event and that the gathering ran under a theme urging people to know their genotype and back sickle cell patients.

Why it matters for Ghana

Sickle cell disease affects thousands of Ghanaian families, and many parents say they learned about genotype compatibility only after a child was diagnosed. If schools in places such as Winneba and beyond taught the topic, pupils could reach adulthood better informed and less exposed to stigma. The materials now sit with the body that decides what goes into classroom learning, so its verdict will shape whether the idea reaches pupils. For patients, the inclusion of hydroxyurea under the NHIS means an active membership can lower the cost of treatment.