12/10/2020
This is far below the belt.
Immediate release – 12th October, 2020
POWA Condemns Blakk Rasta for the Discriminatory use of Sickle Cells Disease as an Abusive Attack on Victoria Lakshmi Hamah and calls for his Removal from Radio
It has come to the shocking notice of the Progressive Organisation for Women’s Advancement (POWA) about a statement made by Blakk Rasta, a popular radio host on social media describing Victoria Lakshmi Hamah, a former Deputy Minister for Communication and the Executive Director of the Progressive Organisation for Women’s Advancement, as “sickle cell brain-diseased”.
POWA in no uncertain terms considers the discriminatory use of sickle cells disease as an abusive attack on Victoria Lakshmi Hamah by Blakk Rasta as insensitive and an affront to persons living and suffering from the sickle cells disease. His comment clearly demonstrates his overly callous and inhumane view of people living with the sickle cells disease.
According to the World Health Organisation over 4 million people globally are living with the sickle cells disease and the year 2015 recorded an estimated whopping 114,000 deaths around the world.
The devastating impact that this condition has on sufferers as well as their families is not one that should be trivialized in anyway.
POWA reiterates that all forms of discriminations are linked. An attack on sufferers of sickle cells disease is as unjustly as any form of racism, sexism, xenophobia and discrimination against persons with disabilities.
The media is a very powerful structure of our social fabric and must be used responsibly. Thus, it behooves on media personalities to act in utmost sensitivity and decorum to ensure the cohesiveness of our society.
Therefore, POWA takes serious exception to the discriminatory use of sickle cells disease as an abusive attack on Victoria Lakshmi Hamah by Blakk Rasta and therefore calls on all progressive and right-thinking Ghanaians to swiftly condemn his careless and inappropriate comment about the sickle cells disease.
NB: Attached is a screen shot of the comment made by Blakk Rasta on sickle cells disease.
Signed:
Victoria Lakshmi Hamah
Executive Director
Cc:
Sickle Cell Foundation of Ghana
Ghana Coalition of NGOs in Health (GCNH)
The National Media Commission
The Ghana Journalist Association
Ministry of Gender and Social Protection
Ministry of Health
Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ)
Media Foundation for West-Africa (MFWA)
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