This wonderful description about the latest sickle cell screening was given to us by Frances. Frances is a regular attendee of the UK-Nigeria Team meetings and has been a valuable supporter of Fantsuam Foundation from the very beginning.
The photo on the right shows a previous screening which took place at Gwantu for 355 children in June 2010.
" I did say [During the UK-Nigeria Team Meeting] that I would let you know about the sickle cell screening which took place on Tuesday.
It took a while to get there and part way along the road had subsided . Fortunately I was with John following a car which had slowed down to negotiate the dip/drop in the road caused by the subsidence as there was no other warning. It felt a bit like driving over the edge of a cliff. One of the many additional challenges to living and working here !
There was a minibus full of people including the two staff from the hospital to take the blood and many volunteers. Zidyep came later with friends in her car bringing a fruit drink which she had made from a local fruit boiled with water and spices to give to the children afterwards. (she virtually did drive right over the cliff)
First of all we went on a c ourtesy visit to the local chief who had agreed the screening along with the other local chiefs to explain what what the screening was all about, although there had already been advanced publicity.
Then we went to the spot we had been allocated next to a clinic. There was a handy , very shady tree where plastic chairs were set out for people to listen to the counsellors explaining the risks on inheriting the disease. They had a diagram to also explain it in pictorial form.
The screening is only available to children under 5 years. Some children had come along accompanied by their older siblings. After the counselling session the children were registered with basic details of their name and age and 'tribe' of their maother and father and contact details which might be a mobile phone or might be the address of their church
After registration the children moved on to where a basic canopy which had been hired had been erected where the two technicians sat to take the blood- a heel prick for babies but from the vein for the older ones. Not a happy experience but afterwards ther was the Zobo (fruit drink).All the samples had to be labelled and matched with copies of the registration forms to link the child with the right sample. There was a'conveyer belt'of volunteers to keep everything in order.
About 180 children were screened. Right to the end stragglers kept turning up but in the end John had to say no more. Then we had to clean the area take down the canopy and return it and make our way home (up the cliff this time) . A final sorting out was done by volunteers back at FF so that the samples could go to Abuja the following day. Parents will be notified if children are found to have sickle cell disease, HIV or Hepatitis C.
Then there is another screening on Sunday!"