WHATS YOUR GENOTYPE?
Thats the question from a concerned parents who want intending couples to answer.
For the popular journalists, couple and friends, Emmanuel and Senami Ohiomokhare, that should be a key question you must ask your intending partner as well as the genuine answer you must give.
Ohiomokhare made this demand in Abuja at the unveiling of Jephthah Ohiomokhare Foundation, Writing Competition and Jephtees.
The couple who are senior staffs of African Independent Television (AIT) used the ocassion of what could have been the 16th year birthday of their first son, Jephthah to launch the Foundation in his memory.
Ohiomokhares said: “On February 4, 2017, our first son, Jephthah Aireankhue Setoni Ivan Ohiomokhare went to be with the Lord. It was a very painful experience for us like it would be for any parent. He passed on due to compplications from sickle cell anaemia. For 15 years and eight months, we successfully managed his condition and jusy a few people knew that he was even a warrior of sickle cell because he looked so healthy and strong.
“Today, we celebrate Jephthah’s 16th birthday post-humously. As an honour to his memory and what he stood for, we, Senami and Emmanuel Ohiomokhare, have decided to set up the Jephthah Ohiomokhare Sickle Cell Foundation.”
They said that the core of the Foundation will be didactic, firstly, to propogate the awareness of sickle cell amongst the unmarried young people through messages encouraging them to check their genotypes and be sure of compatibility before getting married.
According to the couple, “no child should live with fhe pain of sickle cell anaemia or die from it”.
Ohiomokhare stressed the core objective of the Foundation is “to investigate the percieved indigenous curses for Sickle Cell anaemia”.
“This we can do by drawing media and especially, the government attention to these alleged cures, especially for proper research. Yes, we are awaee of bone marrow transplant… but how many Nigerians can afford that?”
The key question: WHAT IS YOUR GENOTYPE?
