Help needed: School struggles to educate Albino children

Some of the pupils at Mitindo Primary School in Misungwi District, Mwanza Region

The school needs special textbooks for blind pupils and those with impaired vision due to albinism. Mr Hirani says that there was need for increased campaign locally to encourage people support less fortunate members of the society, including albino children. Albinos need hats and sunglasses to protect them from the sun. They also need lotion to avoid damage of their delicate skin.

People can effectively support albino youths upon proper mobilisation. There are reports that the nation is currently spending up to 90bn/- annually on weddings and other profligate activities.

AT the age of 16 years, Richard Feruzi, a boy from Ilemela District in Mwanza Region, dreams of being a politician cum human rights activist.

Richard, is an albino and in Standard Seven at Mitindo Primary School in Misungwi District, some 40kms south of Mwanza city.

He has already composed dozens of songs in condemnation of perpetrators of killings of albinos and several others in praise of the leadership of the country.

"I can play a big role in global campaigns against discrimination in whatever its form, as well as promotion of peace and love," says Richard, who has been a pupil at Mitindo since 2004.

He says that the Prime Minister, Mr Mizengo Pinda and the National Assembly Speaker, Mr Samuel Sitta, were among the people whom have inspired him to become a politician.

Richard is one of 105 pupils with albinism at Mitindo special centre in Misungwi district, which was initially established in 1956 as a middle school before becoming an upper primary school in 1967.

Mitindo Primary School Head teacher, Mr Juma Abdallah, says it introduced vocational training in 1975, some three years later it started to admit blind pupils and in 1989 began to enrol those with albinism.

Mr Abdallah adds recently that the school was currently having a total of 1,134 pupils, out of them 86 in pre-school classes and six on vocational training programmes like masonry and carpentry.

He says out of 147 disabled pupils, 42 were blind and the rest were those with albinism. The headmaster lists several challenges faced by the school including the influx of pupils during the last three years, following increased killings of albinos, since many parents brought their children to the centre for security purposes....

WORD FOR JOURNALISTS...

Can the media investigate this place and make the public know about its authenticity. The only person who has pursued Shilinde story is Vicky Ntetema of the BBC, but unfortunately the Tanzanian media has not seen Vicky as a hero, and thus collaborate with her in the fight against albino killings.


Vicky went to Magu where she was told that the Gambusi Kuzimu had vanished many years ago, but if she wanted to see it, the heavies in the witchcraft could give her some medicine which will lead her into the village which Shilinde who wants to be called Daniel now says they have all professionals, all means of transport and everything you would find in a modern city.

The task of Tanzanian journalists is to find the witchdoctors who are peddling albino killings and not looking for the city of wizardry.
Read the Rest Here

Peter Ash drums up support for albino protection

Story Courtesy of The Guardian Newspaper, Tanzania

Peter Ash with an albino girl

President and founder of a Canadian non-profit organization, Under the Same Sun, Peter Ash, jetted in Dar es Salaam over the weekend calling for justice to the families who lost their loved ones due to genetic disorder.

Ash has albinism, a genetic condition which results in significantly reduced vision, but such condition has of late ignited a spate of killings by get-rich-quick fellows always associated with witchcraft.

He told journalists at the Julius Nyerere International Airport (JNIA) that his heart drives him to do whatever he can to provide resources to assist those most disadvantaged by disability, discrimination and poverty.

“Our mission remains unchanged. It is to provide resources which allow these groups to increase their quality of life and gain increased independence,” said Ash.

He said for Tanzania's 170,000 albinos, there was an increasing sense of fear and abandonment. With the government unable or unwilling to protect them from the machetes of the witchdoctors' henchmen, there is no place to hide and little reason to hope.

As the slaughter of albinos continues, promises from Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete and Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda that the killers would be brought to justice swiftly have been fulfilled. Now the Kahama and Shinyanga High Courts have been holding trials for four of the suspected killers of victims with albinism.

This is the third time for the founder of the Canadian NGO is visiting Tanzania. During his second visit, Ash and his delegation met with leaders in the albinism community as well as religious leaders and government officials, including Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda and Vice-President Dr. Ali Mohamed Shein. Unfortunately, four months later as the killings continue unabated, Ash seriously questions if there is any political will for the government to provide meaningful protection for its citizens with albinism.

The most recent victim was 4-year-old Muanda Sita of Madilana village in the Bariadi District, Shinyanga Region. The killers, wielding machetes, overtook the little boy and hacked off his legs one by one as he screamed in agony. His slaughter brings the number of killings of Tanzanians with albinism during the past month to four.

In addition, other African countries are now reporting similar occurrences, including neighboring Burundi where at least 12 people with albinism have been slaughtered in the last year. However, Burundi does not appear to be afflicted with the same kind of judicial apathy.

While the trials in Tanzania are dragging, nine people in Burundi have recently been convicted for the murders. All nine killers are serving time in jail, with one of them serving a life sentence.