Josephine

Don't be afraid your life will end; be afraid that it will never begin- Grace Hansen 

Today the KISU Interact Club members had their very first outing!

^Kampala

As stated in our previous post, our aim is to improve the lives of those who need our help, and we decided that our very first project will be a collaborative project for a 19 year old girl living in a village in Kampala. Her name is Josephine and this is her story...

She has sickle-cell anemia which is the commonest genetic disease in the world. It is due to a mutation which causes haemoglobin molecules to stick together, in tissues with low oxygen concentrations. The chains of haemoglobin join together into bundles that are rigid enough to distort the red blood cells into a sickle shape. These sickle cells cause damage to tissues by becoming trapped in blood capillaries, blocking them and reducing blood flow. (Allot, Andrew and Mindorff, David. Biology Course Companion. Great Britain: Oxford university press, 2007.Print.)

Her father passed away and her mother lost her job recently. Her right hip joint has dug into the hip socket/pelvis so she has a limp. She finds it challenging to walk so she goes to school on a boda-boda. Due to the lack of income sometimes she cannot get the respective medications and has no choice but to endure the pain...

^(from left to right) Emmanuel (Interact Club member), Sandra (Interact Club member), Ingrid (Interact Club president), Josephine (sickle-cell anemia patient), Sylvia (Josephine's mother) 

^(from left to right) Josephine, Sylvia, Mrs Sophie B (our supervisor), Sandra, Emmanuel 

^an X-ray image showing Josephine's displaced right hip joint and socket. 

Unfortunately sickle cell anamia is more often than not considered a death sentence- meaning the life expectancy of the patient is very short. So we as members of the Interact club will be paying regular visits to her home and hosting fundraisers at school in order to purchase her medicines or pay for her boda-boda or even her school fees. For more updates please keep an eye out and please don't forget to subscribe! 

-Engage Rotary, change lives-