World Sickle Cell Day · 19 June 2026

Blood connects us. Care unites us.

Blood is the only medicine a community must keep making for itself. Every second, our bodies make millions of red blood cells to carry oxygen and life — yet one inherited change in haemoglobin can turn blood into pain, crisis, and early death. Across Africa, a child is born with sickle cell disease roughly every few minutes. Early diagnosis, safe blood, basic care, and family support can change the story.

Nigeria carries the highest burden of sickle cell disease of any country in the world, home to an estimated 6 million people living with the condition (Sickle Cell Foundation Nigeria). HEMA-Global is an Africa-focused initiative, anchored first in Nigeria, working so that people living with sickle cell disorder can not only survive — but thrive.

Reach one. Restore all.

Choose Your Action Partner With Us

A young girl supported by Sickle Cell Foundation Nigeria takes part in an arts and wellbeing session — **SCFN community programme.** Art and play therapy sessions support children living with SCD across Nigeria.

45 mo

Average age at first diagnosis

A child diagnosed on day one can begin protective medicines immediately. A child diagnosed at four has spent years at risk.

SCDRN registry cohort, Nigeria

8.85M

Children with SCD in sub-Saharan Africa

The largest concentration of sickle cell disease anywhere in the world. Most without adequate care systems.

Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, 2026

$9.1bn

Annual cost across sub-Saharan Africa

Rising to USD 10.2 billion by 2030. Building a functioning system costs a fraction of continuing without one.

EIU, 2020

Reach One for SCD

One clear action. One person reached.

Every person and organisation — patients, families, clinicians, researchers, diaspora networks, businesses and institutions — can take one clear action that helps sickle cell care reach further. Choose yours below.

Learn one

Learn one fact about sickle cell disease, genotype, early diagnosis or care. Then share it.

Tell one

Share one clear message with a family, school, faith group, workplace or community.

Screen one

Encourage one person or family to understand their screening and diagnosis options.

Counsel one

Support stigma-free genetic counselling and informed choices for individuals and families.

Treat one

Help link one person to appropriate clinical care, follow-up and long-term support.

Register one

Support better patient registries so care needs, outcomes and gaps are visible to those who can act.

Support one

Give time, voice, expertise or community help to patients, caregivers and frontline care teams.

08 →

Partner

Organisations and institutions: explore how your capabilities align with the initiative's goals.

Restore all. — One action can restore healing, family hope and community well-being.

The burden on families

Sickle cell disease is paid for at home, every day.

A pain crisis becomes a family financial crisis. Lost wages. Hospital bills. Children pulled from school. Because most health systems across Africa offer little or no insurance coverage for SCD, families bear almost the entire cost themselves — and outpatient costs alone account for roughly 88% of that burden.

The poorest households are hit hardest, but no income group is protected. Children miss weeks of school every year to pain crises and hospitalisation, and by early adulthood, four in ten young Nigerians living with SCD are out of work, training, and education altogether — an estimated 370,000 people, and a yearly economic and wellbeing loss in the billions. The disease robs not just health, but futures.

“Blood is the only medicine a community must keep making for itself.” Amarachukwu et al., PLOS ONE 2022 · WHO Africa 2023 · Osagie et al. 2022 — full citations in the press release

Seven years of learning

The registry that is already changing care.

RHIEOS Ventures and Sickle Cell Foundation Nigeria signed their first MoU in 2018 and launched the Sickle Cell Disorder Registry Nigeria (SCDRN) in 2019. Seven years on, here is what that infrastructure has revealed — and what it is now changing.

1,915

Patients registered in the SCDRN

Launched in 2019, the registry is already informing clinical protocols, referral decisions and care pathways. Target: 5,000 patients within three to five years.

45 mo

Mean age at first diagnosis

Nearly four years old. The gap newborn screening closes — a child diagnosed on day one can begin protective medicines immediately.

76%

Of enrolled patients have been hospitalised

TCD screening is now identifying children at high or conditional stroke risk who would otherwise be invisible to the health system.

Read the SCDRN Data Report (2024) →

Larry Ajuwon

Founder, RHIEOS Ventures

"Sickle cell disease in Africa is a strategic access priority because it touches blood health, chronic care, and maternal and child health at once. As the Yorùbá saying reminds us — Tó bá dé ẹ̀jẹ̀, kò sí ẹni tí ó jìnnà — when it comes to blood, no one is far away."

Dr. Annette Akinsete

CEO / National Director, Sickle Cell Foundation Nigeria

"For over thirty years, the Sickle Cell Foundation Nigeria has worked so that people living with sickle cell disorder can survive and thrive. HEMA-Global gives us a framework to take that change further, state by state across Nigeria and beyond."

What comes next

A sustained, accountable effort.

Reach One for SCD is the start of a programme, not a moment. RHIEOS Ventures and SCFN will report publicly on participation, learning and outcomes as the initiative develops.

● Live now

Registry to 5,000 patients

HEMA-Global is raising funds to support SCFN in expanding newborn screening and patient follow-up, growing the SCDRN from 1,915 to 5,000 registered patients within three to five years — alongside training of genetic counsellors and a comprehensive cohort study.

◆ Expected Q4 2026

HEMA-Global Health Financing Challenge

A structured call for African philanthropic, diaspora, private-sector and institutional partners to co-invest in HEMA-Global's first funding round, alongside grant, match-funding and community-based financing pathways.

Press & resources

Read the full announcement.

HEMA-Global and Reach One for SCD — Launch Press Release

19 June 2026 · World Sickle Cell Day. RHIEOS Ventures and Sickle Cell Foundation Nigeria announce their partnership on HEMA-Global to improve sickle cell access, care, and financing in Africa.

Read Full Press Release → SCDRN Data Report (PDF) →

On the ground

Reach One for SCD, in practice.

Before the launch, there was the work. Counselling, screening, and care sessions SCFN runs with children and families across Nigeria — the everyday actions this campaign is built to multiply.

A child takes part in an SCFN arts and wellbeing session

Art & wellbeing session

SCFN staff, volunteers and children gather for a group photo at a community programme

SCFN community programme

An SCFN counsellor works with children at an arts table

Counselling & play

Dr. Annette Akinsete reads with a group of children supported by SCFN

Dr. Akinsete with children

Photos: Sickle Cell Foundation Nigeria community programmes.

Partners

In partnership with SCFN.

Sickle Cell Foundation Nigeria

Nigeria's foremost institution for SCD advocacy, prevention, genetic counselling, diagnosis, care, research and registry work. Nigeria anchor partner for Reach One for SCD and HEMA-Global. Over three decades of service to patients and families.

Visit sicklecellfoundation.com →

RHIEOS Ventures / HEMA-Global

A health access and investment firm building data-driven, sustainable health systems in Africa. Partner to SCFN on SCD registry infrastructure since 2018. HEMA-Global is an Africa-focused, Nigeria-anchored access and financing initiative for sickle cell disease and blood health.

Visit rhieosventures.com →

How partners can engage with Reach One for SCD

Media & CommsExplainers, storytelling, public campaigns and editorial partnership.

Clinical & ResearchEvidence contribution, registry support and clinical voice.

Policy & AdvocacyStakeholder engagement, policy framing and public dialogue.

Community & DiasporaGrassroots mobilisation, awareness networks and diaspora-linked support.

Funding & PhilanthropyAlignment with the HEMA-Global Health Financing Challenge, expected Q4 2026.

Business & InstitutionsEmployee campaigns, corporate partnership and long-term programme support.