We have normalized stigma against Sickle Cell disease and it makes it difficult – Advocate

Dr. Enam Sefakor Bankas, the Managing Director of Sickle Life, has called for people to be more thoughtful in the way they compound the difficulties people living with Sickle Cell disease go through.

She explained that there is a challenge in the country with the way people stigmatise persons living with the disease.

Speaking on The Lowdown

Read full articleon GhanaWeb TV with host, Nii Akwei Ismail Akwei, she said that the natural challenges that persons living with Sickle Cell should ordinarily weigh them down but they do all that is possible to excel in their lives.

She added that when people unnecessarily add up to those challenges, it makes it even more devastating for them to keep on fighting.

“We’ve normalized the stigma around Sickle Cell disease such that so many people don’t even recognize it. So, you’re saying something derogatory about Sickle Cell or you’re doing something that stigmatizes someone with Sickle Cell disease at your workplace or in your school but then you don’t even notice that what you’re doing is stigmatizing.

“And even when it’s called out to you, it doesn’t even ‘click’; you don’t make that connection because to you, it’s normal. Like, how dare they even complain, and it is something we need to think more about because these are people like you, like everybody else, that are living their lives.

“It’s very difficult and if you listen to us talk about our stories, talk about the challenges we’re going through and we’re excelling despite all of these and you have people adding on this, it is very very difficult,” she said.

Watch the full episode of The Lowdown on GhanaWeb TV here: