Changing Conversations about Sickle Cell Disease through Journalism

TLDR

• The article did not earn me an individual nomination during my first participation in the 16th Excellence in Journalism Awards Tanzania (EJAT 2025), but something even more meaningful happened.
• Families carried shame instead of support, and many people believed that a child born with sickle cell disease would never live beyond the age of 18.
• Long before I sat behind my laptop searching through medical journals or interviewing specialists, I found myself thinking about a friend I had lost years ago.
• She died from sickle cell disease at a time when the illness was wrapped in fear, myths and silence.
• In many communities, sickle cell disease was seen as a curse rather than a genetic condition.