Ever since I started sharing my story and speaking out about Sickle Cell and what it is not, I have been looking for other ways to get my message across a wider audience. Following my eight weeks course with World Pulse, an online digital change making platform, especially Social Media aimed at empowering women through the media to find their voices and impact their communities, I launched my Digital Action Campaign (DAC) under the banner “BREAK THE SILENCE… BE A SICKLE CELL VOICE” with a hashtag #BeASickleCellVoice.
The aim of this campaign is twofold: to raise awareness, educate the community at large and demystify sickle cell disorder and also, to help those affected by the disorder especially women, find their voices to speak out against a socio- psychological and health situation that society generally, would rather they stay quiet.
The stigma and misconceptions surrounding sickle cell disorder are huge and have a very far reaching negative impact in the lives and families of those affected. Against this backdrop, I launched my online campaign which I plan to do every June for as long as possible. June is a perfect time for this campaign as World Sickle Cell Day falls on June 19th and activities about Sickle Cell are at their peak earth wide during this period. This is the second year I am doing it and the response and support I received was so motivating and overwhelming that I was more than inspired to keep doing my best in this quest to break the silence and taboos around sickle cell.
This blog post is written with a heart full of appreciation and thankfulness for all those who came out of their way in various shades of red and black which are colours of the movement and sickle cell last June to add their voices so that together, we all could be sickle cell voices. I have tried to make a collage of all the pictures of support I received. Needless to say, I will let the pictures speak for themselves. Feed your eyes on these and tell me what you think.
As the weeks went by, more and more people joined the movement and together, we painted social media red as we all decided to be sickle cell voices. This show of support in the subsequent weeks is shown below.
It was thrilling and motivating to see so many come out in full red/ black gears to cheer the campaign on. It may have started as a dream but the support made it all worthwhile.
And that is how the campaign went on. I have provided a link to the Facebook Album above. You can check it out to see what information was passed out during the campaign which made it more I hope, of an awareness and educative period and not a fashion show 🙂
Thank you all once again for rallying behind me during this campaign. I pray next time, we will register even more success stories with more people, especially warriors joining in to make their voices louder as we strive to break the silence and be a sickle cell voice.
Let’s know what you think in the commets section below.
Keep reading, keep sharing and keep coming. We are inspired by your comments, thank you.
ARREY-E. AGBOR-NDAKAW
Sis you be star oh! See the outpouring of love in this campaign! I don feed my eyes well:-) Keep doing your best dear. We dey ya back!
Love the new feel here:-)
Awww Sis thank you sooo much! That outpouring of love was really something else. I was so overwhelmed.
That’s really all a geh needs to keep doing her best. Thank you for always having my back.
Learning the hangs here but love the feel too thank you.
You did so well with the campaign, sis!
I keep learning from you. Your positive attitude is contagious.
We definitely painted Facebook red.
Thank you for being a loud and clear voice on SCD!
Thank you so much Sis.
Lol Yes we definitely painted Facebook Red!
Thank you for always being there…cheering all the way.
It means alot.