1.What SDGs does your project target? What might be reasonable indicators for those SDGs?
Our project – sickle cell diagnostics in Sierra Leone – targets SDG 3 (good health and well-being) SGD 9 (industry, innovation, and infrastructure), and SDG 10 (reduced inequalities). Parallels can be drawn from nearly all the sustainable development goals to our project, but these three seem to be the most crucial. The project’s goal is to design a low-cost diagnostic device for sickle cell disease. Our venture is starting in Sierra Leone, but we have hopes of expanding across Sub-Saharan Africa where nearly 45% of the population are carriers for the disease. This is a stark contrast from the international carrier rate of 2.1% (Plackett, 2021). Our device aims to relieve some of the burden that this disease puts on healthcare systems and lessen the substantial inequality in health services and outcomes caused by its prevalence. Another issue in Sub-Saharan Africa is lack of knowledge surrounding the disease. By making our device the norm for children at birth, we can eliminate the gap in suffering to treatment – promoting good health and well-being. Another very important aspect of this project is the device itself.
2.Describe ten cultural factors that might impact your project at various phases in its lifecycle.
We have several project goals associated with our sickle cell anemia diagnostic test strip device, taking into account the cultural factors that might impact our project.
- One factor to consider is the stigma around sickle cell anemia in Sierra Leone, as there is a lack of understanding of the disease and its painful effects. Religious and cultural beliefs also play a role in the stigma behind the disease. Thus, our team should work to reduce the stigma of sickle cell anemia in order to lead to widespread use of the test strips in Sierra Leone.
- A second cultural factor is the lack of knowledge in the technology of our device and how to use it. Thus, we should work to make our test strip easy to use and highly reliable.
- A third factor to consider is that women in Sierra Leone on average give birth to six children. Our venture seeks to identify sickle cell disease as soon as possible in this country and if women are having this many children it will both become more important and more urgent that these diagnoses happen early in their lives.
- A fourth factor is the lower financial status of the country as a whole. This low income causes the expense of our product to become a focus. It is very important to those that this project intends to affect, that the test strip is at the lowest cost to them as possible.
- A fifth factor is that Sierra Leone has different social classes that have different amounts of wealth and access to care. It is imperative that this project can reach and have an impact on the extremes of their society. In other words, both the wealthy and poor should be able to have a similar ability to have an accurate and cheap sickle cell disease diagnosis.
- A sixth factor is that Sierra Leone has the highest death rate and the second highest infant mortality rate in the world. This demonstrates further the need for a product that aims to have an indirect effect on these rates for the better.
- A seventh factor is that medical facilities in Sierra Leone are underfunded and can reach only 35% of the population. This funding issue may be due to only 1% of the government’s annual budget going towards these facilities. The issue of medical care reach may make it difficult to immediately implement and make an impact with our project’s product.
- An eighth factor to consider is the basic economy of Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone’s economy is dependent on mainly agriculture, including cash crops such as coffee, cocoa, tobacco, etc. In order to fully implement our test strip device, our team should gain an understanding of how Sierra Leone’s healthcare system plays a role in its economy.
- A ninth factor is the lack of access to proper sanitation and clean drinking water. Our device involves blood samples, and with the implementation of our test strips, healthcare providers in Sierra Leone should be educated on sanitation protocols.
- A tenth factor to consider is how much the government allocates its money to healthcare. Less than 1 percent of annual government spending is allocated to healthcare. Thus, it is important for our project team to partner with other organizations related to sickle cell anemia in order to fully implement our device for widespread use.
3.Give three examples of cultural practices that can be leveraged to address community / market problems.
One cultural factor that could be leveraged when addressing the underdiagnosis of sickle cell anemia in Sierra Leone is the polite and manner-conscious tendencies of the area. Sierra Leoneans pay attention to courteous and eloquent greetings, as well as respecting elders. This could be leveraged to our advantage when trying to raise awareness about sickle cell disease. A community that is welcoming and willing to listen to what we have to say will be relatively easy to communicate and work with. Another example of a culture aspect that would be helpful is the importance of kinship networks in Sierra Leonean’s lives. In their culture it is important to assist one’s family throughout their lives. Our research is extremely relevant to keeping families alive and healthy since sickle cell anemia is taking the lives of children. Therefore we can leverage the importance of family and health to encourage those in Sierra Leone to help spread awareness about sickle cell anemia. Finally, the growing importance of education in Sierra Leone could be leveraged to our advantage. If we could potentially work with local schools to implement small lessons educating the local students of sickle cell and its symptoms, this could definitely help us quickly and effectively spread awareness to communities. Furthermore, hopefully through word of mouth students would be able to cause a chain reaction of knowledge spreading.
Collaborated on by: Kathleen Gifford, Anjali Shah, and Lauryn Jones
References
Culture of Sierra Leone. Retrieved from https://www.everyculture.com/Sa-Th/Sierra-Leone.html
Placket, B. (2021). Why the middle east is a sickle-cell hotspot. Retrieved from https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02144-y