SUPPORT
We provide support through regular meetings, motivational talks, peer counselling and personal development initiatives.
PUBLIC EDUCATION
Our public education efforts include our annual Sickle Cell Awareness Week, seminars at schools & churches and the production of educational material.
FUNDRAISING
We engage in several fundraising activities to help us carry out our work and assist patients with medical and other expenses.
GETTING TO KNOW THE SCSFJ
Our mission is to provide support to patients and their families through a vibrant organization. We also seek to raise public awareness of sickle cell disorders and create an enabling environment within which individuals with sickle cell disease can flourish and realize their true potential.
Provide social and emotional support to patients and families affected by sickle cell disease and share information and coping strategies to empower individuals to manage the disorder effectively.- Heighten awareness of the various sickle cell disorders which exist through public education programs and to dispel the many prevailing myths and misconceptions which surround the illness.
- Act as a public advocate on behalf of individuals affected by sickle cell disease.
- Foster and support personal development and self-actualization of sickle cell patients with assistance through grants for remedial education, skills training and micro-entrepreneurial ventures.
- Provide limited assistance with medical expenses to needy sickle cell patients.
- Establish links and exchange information, ideas and strategies with regional and international sickle cell organisations.
- Lobbying the Ministry of Health to restart neo-natal screening of babies and adding Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) to National Health Fund (NHF) coverage.
- Publishing an educational “Get the Facts” brochure on Sickle Cell Disease and a “Teachers’ Guide to Sickle Cell Disease”.
- Staging the annual Sickle Cell Awareness Week.
- Recipient of CIBC First Caribbean Unsung Hero Award 2010
- Successful Sweater Drive to assist underprivileged patients during the cold months.
- The establishment of a Sickle Cell Hip Replacement Fund and an account at the Blood Bank.
Newborn screening for sickle cell disease is recommended as a method of decreasing patient mortality.
- Revising and reprinting our Teachers’ Guide to Sickle Cell Disease for distribution to schools, along with the hosting of sensitization workshops for teachers.
- Developing a public awareness campaign using the electronic and print media to raise the profile of the illness and increase the testing for the sickle cell trait to reduce the incidence of the disease.
- Assisting more patients with education and skills training.
- Supporting the establishment of branches of the SCSFJ islandwide.
Jamaican babies born annually with Sickle Cell Disease (one in every 150)
Jamaicans with the sickle cell trait, which is 10% of the population
%
World population carrying the sickle cell trait
THE LATEST NEWS FROM OUR BLOG
Sickle Cell Disease Now Covered By NHF
Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) has been added to the list of chronic conditions covered by the National Health Fund (NHF). A total of $211 million has been allocated for subsidies on medication for the treatment of the disease. This brings to 16, the number of illnesses covered under the Fund’s Individual Benefits Programme. The announcement was made at a ceremony held on Tuesday (June 30), at the New Kingston Conference Centre.
read more
Gina fights for sicklers
You would think that with volunteer projects at the McCam Childcare Centre, UNAIDS, Crawford Academy and Trailfinders of Canada, Gina Hargitay’s lap would be full. But two weeks ago, the 20 year-old beauty who took the Miss Jamaica World 2013 and Miss World Caribbean 2013 crowns formalised her association with yet another charity – the former Sickle Cell Support Club of Jamaica, which was rebranded the Sickle Cell Support Foundation of Jamaica and launched on April 14.
read more
Relaunched Sickle Cell Foundation aims to increase support
Persons living with Sickle Cell disease can now look forward to increased support as the Sickle Cell Support Club has been rebranded the Sickle Cell Support Foundation of Jamaica (SCSFJ). As a foundation, the 23-year-old organisation will now be able to attract funds from more international and local donors, putting it in a better position to fulfill its mandate.
read moreFEATURED VIDEOS
