By Daniel Ezeigwe
As a way to celebrate with people living with sickle cell disorder on the World Sickle Cell Day, Anambra governor’s wife, Mrs Nonye Soludo, today, spent time with children at the Sickle Cell Orphanage and Underprivileged Home, Agulu in Anaocha Local Government Area.
Mrs Soludo, who explained that the visit was to show her support to the children, explained that beyond the annual occasion, people with sickle cell deserve to always be cared for and celebrated.
The Anambra State Commissioner for Health, Dr Afam Obidike, who led the Health Living with Nonye Soludo’s team to the home, noted that the state government is keen on opening up special opportunities for people with special needs to achieve their dreams without any impediments.
Speaking on behalf of the governor’s wife, Dr. Obidike stated that the visit was to motivate the children to be focused and pursue their dreams without seeing their health status as any form of obstacle, and to also use their current situation as a motivation to lead awareness on the importance of genotype education.
She reassured that the current administration will continue to support the home and others of a kind, and urged them to also take care of their health and pay special attention to wait they eat.
Responding, the Director of the home, Mrs Aisha Edwards-Maduagwu, who is also the National Coordinator of Association of Persons Living with Sickle Cell Disorder (APLSCD), said that the association is eager to utilize every opportunity and assistance from well-meaning benefactors for the growth and empowerment of vulnerable sickle cell children, likewise for the total eradication of sickle cell disease from Anambra State.
She noted that through the intervention of Governor Chukwuma Soludo, seventy-one persons with the disease have become free beneficiaries of Anambra State Health Insurance Scheme, while the home is also currently receiving monthly subventions from the state government.
Mrs Maduagwu also thanked Governor Soludo and his wife for priortizing the welfare of people with special needs in the state, and appealed to everyone to keep trusting and believing in their potentials.
During the visit, Mrs Soludo donated food items and cash to the home, where she had visited in similar measures just three months ago.
Recalled that just a few days ago, the Anambra governor’s wife enroled for free, one thousand persons with special needs into the Anambra State Health Insurance Scheme to cover their medicals for one year.
