Ruth Nankanja, BA

Forty- three year old Ruth Nankanja is the executive director of the Sickle Cell Association of Uganda, which she founded in 2000 to raise awareness of the condition after suffering stigma as she struggled with the disease. Ruth Nankanja is a sickle cell patient. Ruth soon realized that people would rather sweep sickle cell under the carpet and forget about it. She knew only too well the stigma and discrimination faced by people with sickle cell in Uganda.Once armed with scientific fact as to the cause of sickle cell disease, Ruth Nankanja committed herself and a number of other patients together with several health workers in order to change this state of affairs. Online profile