NCDI Poverty Network

Powerful work this week by Hellen Adhiambo, a member of our Voices for PEN-Plus team and founder of the Lending HANDS Initiative, a patient-led organization that supports children living with sickle cell disease in Kenya. Learn more about Hellen and her fellow Voices advocates: https://www.ncdipoverty.org/blog/new-voices-additions

Advocacy for stronger health systems has been on all of our minds during this Global Week for Action on NCDs -- and we had the honor of seeing advocacy begin for many young warriors last month during Camp Wanwod in Bo, Sierra Leone.

In addition to health education, music, art and recreation, warriors at camp - who live with either type 1 diabetes or sickle cell disease - also participated in sessions about advocacy, and about using their voices, their stories and their power to create positive change.

Because PEN-Plus is a model powered by movements.

No one should die from a treatable NCD because essential medicines or diagnostic tests are unavailable - whether insulin for diabetes, hydroxyurea for sickle cell disease, or other lifesaving tools for people living with severe, chronic conditions.

Together, we all can .

See more moments from Camp Wanwod in this photo gallery, and as always, keep following along to learn more.



Doctors with Africa CUAMM
Sonia Nabeta Foundation
PIH Sierra Leone
Music Heals Initiative Sierra Leone

Photo Gallery: Camp Wanwɔd 2026 — NCDI Poverty Network Witness the joy of Camp Wanwↄd, a PEN-Plus camp recently held for young people living with either type 1 diabetes or sickle cell disease in Sierra Leone.

No one should die from a treatable NCD because essential medicines or diagnostic tests are unavailable -- whether insulin for diabetes, hydroxyurea for sickle cell disease, or other lifesaving tools for people living with severe, chronic noncommunicable diseases.

As part of the Global Week for Action on NCDs, the NCDI Poverty Network is calling for greater investment in the medicines, diagnostics, procurement systems, and supply chains that help make quality care possible.

Because PEN-Plus is a model powered by movements, building global solidarity for integrated NCD care.

Together, we all can

Learn more with our 2025-28 Strategic Plan: https://www.ncdipoverty.org/strategic-plan-2025-2028

The NCDI Poverty Network works with governments and partners implementing PEN-Plus to improve access to insulin, hydroxyurea, HbA1c testing, sickle cell diagnostics, and more lifesaving medicines and technologies for people living with severe, chronic noncommunicable diseases.

During the third annual ICPPA in June, and during this Global Week for Action on NCDs, it's clear that better procurement, stronger supply chains, and smarter policies save lives.

Read on to learn how cabinet-level ministries from eight countries attended ICPPA in Tanzania, showing the growing governmental commitment and momentum for integrated care across sub-Saharan Africa.

Together, we all can .

The PEN-Plus Conversation Shifts from What to How — NCDI Poverty Network The Third International Conference on PEN-Plus in Africa reflected a key advancement in the PEN-Plus movement in the two years since the inaugural meeting: a notable shift in conversation from what the model is to how countries can best scale up their PEN-Plus programs nationally.

During the Global Week for Action on NCDs, we're highlighting the ways the NCDI Poverty Network is working with countries and partners to expand access to lifesaving medicines and diagnostics for severe, chronic NCDs including type 1 diabetes, sickle cell disease, and childhood heart disease.

The PEN-Plus clinic at Pujehun Government Hospital, for example, has more than 2,000 patients in active care in a rural district of southern Sierra Leone. Read on to learn about those patients, and about how 30 of the youngest recently spent a week immersed in education and empowerment at a PEN-Plus camp. The camp showed them they are not alone, they can manage their condition, and they can achieve their goals.

Because poverty should never be a death sentence for young people living with severe NCDs.



Sonia Nabeta Foundation
Doctors with Africa CUAMM
PIH Sierra Leone

Pujehun PEN-Plus Clinic Offers a Lifeline in Sierra Leone — NCDI Poverty Network Every few months, 19-year-old Mohamed Tejan travels nearly 200 miles from Freetown, Sierra Leone, to a PEN-Plus clinic in the southern part of the country. There he receives care for sickle cell disease, along with free medicine that is not available to him in the capital, free or otherwise. His lon

Wonderful to see Camp Tuli Bonse 2026 underway in Chongwe, Zambia! Warriors at the camp receive regular care at PEN-Plus clinics in Zambia, as part of the integrated clinical services for young people living with severe, chronic .

Camp Tuli Bonse began a year ago, showing young warriors that they are not alone, they can manage their health, and they can achieve their dreams.

CIDRZ - the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia
Sonia Nabeta Foundation

The smiles have lit up Camp Wanwod this week! Together, we have !

PIH Sierra Leone Medici con l'Africa Cuamm Mass General Brigham

SISTERHOOD! The friendships built at Camp WanWod are not defined by where you are from or the condition you live with. They simply see the warrior in each other 💜

cc: Our Partners NCDI Poverty Network & Doctors with Africa CUAMM

Thank you to the Bukhman Foundation for supporting this camp through Mass General Brigham. It's been an incredible week of health education, empowerment and peer support!

Monday was Arrival Day at Camp Wanwod! At center in the white shirt is Voices of PEN-Plus member Christine Nabatanzi, a type 1 diabetes advocate and peer educator with the Sonia Nabeta Foundation in Uganda.

60 warriors living with type 1 diabetes or sickle cell disease are at the Bo School in Bo, Sierra Leone, for a week of health education, empowerment and peer support. Together, we have !

Doctors with Africa CUAMM
Sonia Nabeta Foundation
PIH Sierra Leone

Camp supported by the Bukhman Foundation through Mass General Brigham.