The Buganda Kingdom has handed over proceeds amounting to Shs420m, raised from the Kabaka’s Birthday Run to the Ministry of Health to help patients suffering from sickle cell disease.
The run was held in April in collaboration with telcoms giant Airtel, and according to the Second Deputy Katikiro of Buganda Haji Twaha Kaawaase the money collected was intended to help children suffering from the disease.
“We were able to raise Shs494,200,000. The Kabaka of Buganda asked that we use Shs200m of the collected amount to directly purchase sickle cell kits so that they are distributed nationwide,” Kaawaase told Health minister Jane Ruth Aceng on Thursday at Bulange.
The minister appreciated the move started by the Kabaka, Muwenda Mutebi II.
“In 2016, we reached out to the Buganda Kingdom for a collaboration so that we could create awareness. Then we knew that when the Buganda Kingdom creates an awareness, it’s not only with the kingdom but entire country,” she said after receiving the kits.
According to Dr Susan Nabadda, the Executive Director Uganda National Health Laboratories System, as a result of the Kabaka Birthday Run over the last three years, there has been a great increase in Sickle Cell Disease awareness from two per cent to 30-40 per cent.
Currently, according to the Uganda Demographic and Health Survey (UDHS), 2016, the sickle cell disease prevalence stands at 0.73 while the trait prevalence stands at 13.3 per cent and it is estimated that 25,000 babies are born annually with it, and 80 per cent babies born with it die before their fifth birthdays.
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