Tuesday, 7 July 2015
Wednesday, 24 June 2015
Awareness Day Seeks to End Abuses Against Albinos
Saturday is the first International Albinism Awareness Day, declared by the United Nations, because 40 years ago a Canadian boy was bullied for having poor eyesight, pale skin, and white hair from a genetic condition as old as humanity.
That boy with albinism survived the taunts and punches. But decades later, Peter Ash saw reports of others who did not survive their attackers. In parts of sub-Saharan Africa, Ash learned, people with albinism are considered ghost spirits, called zeru zeru or “nothingness.” They are thought stupid or evil. They are deemed both less and more than human. (Read about rising violence against Tanzania's albinos.)
Their body parts are coveted for witch-doctor potions that promise riches, bounteous harvests, and election victories. An albino arm might sell for $4,000 and an entire body—limbs, genitals, ears, tongue and nose—can fetch up to $75,000,according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
In Tanzania, the first African country Ash visited, he met the family of a 6-year-old girl whose assailants hacked off her arms and her legs, then slit her throat and cut out her tongue. (Pictures go inside the lives of Tanzania's albinos.)
“My wife and I, fortunate to have done well, had been wondering how we could serve,” the Vancouver investor recalls. “When I got to Tanzania, I felt truly called.”
He had worked for a time as a minister and counselor before changing his career to commercial real estate investor. But he is now best known as probably the world’s leading activist for albinism education, inclusion and protection. By lobbying the United Nations, he helped create International Albinism Awareness Day, which will occur each June 13.
Children attend a class at the Kabanga school. About 60 percent of the residents with albinism are children. Though violence remains a threat, these kids face a more certain danger: Skin cancer kills 98 percent of them before they turn 40.
PHOTOGRAPH BY STEPHANIE SINCLAIR
Rounding Up Children
Albinism is most common—and most feared—in sub-Saharan Africa. In Tanzania, one in about 1,400 children are born with it.
In North America and Europe, the rate is far lower, about one in 20,000. A parent may have normal skin and hair pigmentation and mate with a partner who looks the same but, if each carries the recessive gene for albinism, a child will be born with the condition. Albinos, or people with albinism, the term they prefer, suffer reduced eyesight and increased risk of skin cancer, but the condition does not affect intellect or ability.
A nonprofit organization Ash formed, called Under the Same Sun, reports that at least 378 people with albinism—about two-thirds of them children—have been murdered or maimed in the past 15 years in 25 sub-Saharan nations, almost half in Tanzania.
“We’ve seen an increase of killings in people with albinism over and over again in the run-up to elections,” Ash says, pleased that a government minister this monthwarned politicians to avoid witchcraft. Girls and women with albinism are also raped by men who believe the myth that their HIV can be cured that way.
In 2008, the Tanzanian government, embarrassed by reports of attacks, rounded up hundreds of pale African children and shipped them to nine schools already designated for children with disabilities, including blindness. (People with albinism are often declared legally blind and, in adulthood, typically do not drive.)
The photos above were taken at one such school, the Kabanga Protectorate Center.
Sisters who live and study at the Kabanga center braid each other’s hair. Tanzanians with albinism say they feel hunted, and news reports have documented more than 60 killings of those with the disorder over the last five years.
PHOTOGRAPH BY STEPHANIE SINCLAIR
'I Always Travel With Security'
Under the Same Sun considers those schools to be overcrowded and ineffective. Instead, it supports the education of 320 children with albinism, from kindergarten through college, at private schools whose staffs are trained to understand albinism. Its aim is to nurture such children into productive members of society, working in roles that will help change societal attitudes toward the condition.
“We already have a young woman economist working in the prime minister’s office,” Ash tells me. “We have woman at Barclay’s Bank. And we have a teacher.” Two members of the nation’s National Assembly also have albinism; one was appointed, one elected in 2010.
Among Under the Same Sun’s Tanzanian staff are 10 people with albinism who travel southern Africa to educate. Ash is in Tanzania to participate in festivities for the awareness day, but carefully.
In Tanzania, which he has visited 18 times since 2008, “My face has been in every newspaper and on every TV station, and I’ve made some very strong statements” against lax government response to the attacks. So, he says, “I always travel with security.”
A child with albinism takes her plate to the dining hall as a storm comes in at the Kabanga center. The safety these children enjoy there comes at a price: Many live far away from their families.
PHOTOGRAPH BY STEPHANIE SINCLAIR
In rural areas of other nations, including China and India, babies with albinism are often considered unlucky and are abandoned to orphanages or kicked into the streets to beg. Last month in India, a first-grade teacher told a girl’s mother to keep her child home, explaining that “she is too white so other parents object to her presence and don’t want their children to study with her.”
Ash knows from his parents’ stories that when his older brother Paul was born in 1957, the hospital staff said simply, “Oh, you have a fair-haired child.” That brother was not diagnosed with albinism until his mother noticed his poor eyesight.
Now almost 50, Ash said he still encounters medical professionals clueless about the condition. “Most people,” he says, “have never met someone with albinism.”
Saturday, 20 June 2015
Thursday, 21 May 2015
UNESCO IMEAHIDI KUWASAIDIA WATANZANIA KUKABILI DHULUMA DHIDI YA WANAOISHI NA ALBINISM
Kiongozi wa ofisi na mwakilishi wa Shirika la Umoja wa Mataifa la Elimu, Sayansi na Utamaduni (UNESCO) nchini, Zulmira Rodrigues (kulia) akisalimiana na Mkuu wa Mkoa wa Mwanza, Magesa Mulongo (kushoto) alipomtembelea ofisini kwake jijini Mwanza akiwa ameambatana na Mbunge wa Viti Maalum CCM, anayetetea maslahi ya watu wenye albinism, Mh. Al-Shaymaa Kwegyir (wa pili kulia) pamoja na Semeni Kingaru (wa tatu kulia).(Picha zote na Zainul Mzige wa modewjiblog).
Na Mwandishi wetu, Mwanza
SHIRIKA la Elimu, Sayansi na Utamaduni la Umoja wa Mataifa (UNESCO) limeahidi kusaidia mapambano dhidi ya unyanyasaji na dhuluma zinazofanywa jamii dhidi ya watu wenye albinism.
Kauli hiyo imetolewa hivi karibuni na Kiongozi wa ofisi na mwakilishi wa Shirika la Umoja wa Mataifa la Elimu, Sayansi na Utamaduni (UNESCO) nchini, Zulmira Rodrigues wakati akizungumza na mkuu wa mkoa wa Mwanza Magesa Mulongo.
Mwakilishi huyo wa Unesco amesema hayo alipomtembelea Mkuu wa mkoa kumsalimia na kumweleza hatua zinazochukuliwana Unesco katika kukabiliana na ukatili dhidi ya watu wenye albinism.
Akifafanua zaidi alisema kwamba UNESCO haijatenga fedha zitakazotumika kuendesha kampeni mahsusi bali itatumia uwezo wa kiufundi uliopo kwa wataalamu walionao na kwamba wanakusudia kuona kwamba miaka 15 ijayo watoto wanaozaliwa nchini Tanzania wanakuwa huru pasipo na viashiria vya kuhatarisha maisha vinavyosababishwa na mauaji ya watu wenye albinism.
Akimkaribisha Bi Zulmira ofisini kwake, Mkuu wa mkoa Magesa Mulongo alisema kwamba ingawa kuna utulivu katika kipindi hiki mkoani Mwanza, bado mkoa wake unaendelea kukabiliana na viashiria vinavyosababisha ukatili kwa watu wenye albinism na wazee.
Bwana Magesa alisema imani potofu zilizopo zinazosadikika kufanikisha biashara za uvuvi wa samaki, uchimbaji wa madini na wanasiasa kuendelea na madaraka ni miongoni mwa sababu kubwa za mauaji hayo yaliyoitia doa jeusi jamii ya kitanzania nje ya mipaka.
Alisema kwamba jitihada zinafanywa kukabiliana na imani hizo potofu kwa kuihamasisha jamii kutoziamini na kwamba madaraka na utajiri unatokana na juhudi, kufanya kazi kwa bidii na si vinginevyo.
Aidha amesema mkoa wake umekuwa ukihakikisha kwamba makundi yanayotumika kuua watu wengine kwa kushirikisha jamii yanavunjwa na pia kuwachukulia hatua kali wote wanaobainika kushiriki kwa njia moja au nyingine.
Hata hivyo mwakilishi wa umoja wa mataifa alisema kwamba hali ya amani itatawala pale tu watu watakapobaini kwamba kuua ni ukiukwaji wa haki za binadamu na ni kosa la jinai.
Alisema pindi binadamu watakapokiri kwamba binadamu wote ni sawa na kuishi na albinism sio ‘mzimu’ watabadili mwelekeo mzima wa fikra potofu kimaisha na kuishi kwa amani na kuthaminiana.
Bi Zulmira alimwambia mkuu wa mkoa kwamba UNESCO kwa kushirikiana na wadau wengine wataendesha makongamano yenye lengo la kushirikisha jamii katika kuandaa na kutekeleza mikakati itakayo changia kuzuia na kutokomeza unyanyasaji na dhuluma zinazofanya dhidi ya watu wenye albinism.
Mkuu wa Mkoa wa Mwanza, Magesa Mulongo (kushoto) akizungumza na Kiongozi wa ofisi na mwakilishi wa Shirika la Umoja wa Mataifa la Elimu, Sayansi na Utamaduni (UNESCO) nchini, Zulmira Rodrigues (kushoto) aliyeambatana na Mbunge wa Viti Maalum CCM, anayetetea maslahi ya watu wenye albinism, Mh. Al-Shaymaa Kwegyir (wa pili kulia) pamoja na Semeni Kingaru (wa tatu kulia) alipomtembelea ofisini kwake jijini Mwanza. Wa pili kushoto ni Katibu Tawala wa mkoa wa Mwaza, Faisal Issa.
Warsha hizo zitafanyika kwa wakati tofauti katika kipindi cha wiki mbili wilayani Sengerema, Misungwi, Msalala na Bariadi. Warsha hizo zilizoanzia Sengerema Jumatano na kumalizika Ijumaa zitafuatiwa na Misungwi Mei 25 hadi 27, Msalala Mei 28 hadi 30 na Bariadi kuanzia Mei 28-30.
Katika warsha hiyo pamoja na kujadili mada mbalimbali, mijadala itahusisha viongozi wa serikali, wanasiasa, viongozi wa kidini na kimila na hoja kubwa itakayojadiliwa ni dhana ya kisayansi ya albinism, mitazamo ya jamii kuhusu dhana hiyo, makundi mbalimbali ndani ya jamii, tofauti kati ya utamaduni na asili.
Pia watajadili kubainisha na kuanisha matatizo, changamoto na hatari zinazowakabili watu wenye alibinism na kuchambua mambo yanayochangia uwepo wa changamoto na hatari kwa watu wenye alibinism.
Katika majadiliano hayo pia mikakati inayoweza kupunguza au kumaliza kabisa matatizo changamoto na hatari zinazowakabili watu wenye alibinism katika jamii yetu itatazamwa.
Watoa mada wanatarajiwa kutoka katika halmashauri, vyama vinavyotetea maslahi ya albinism, mbunge anayetetea maslahi ya watu wenye albinism Al-Shaymaa Kwegyir na mwakilishi kutoka baraza la taifa la dawa asilia.
Mkuu wa Mkoa wa Mwanza, Magesa Mulongo akiendelea na maongezi na ugeni huo ofisini kwake jijini Mwanza.
Kiongozi wa ofisi na mwakilishi wa Shirika la Umoja wa Mataifa la Elimu, Sayansi na Utamaduni (UNESCO) nchini, Zulmira Rodrigues (kulia), akielezea nia ya Shirika lake kusaidia mapambano dhidi ya unyanyasaji na dhuluma zinazofanywa jamii dhidi ya watu wenye albinism nchini alipomtembelea Mkuu wa Mkoa wa Mwanza, Magesa Mulongo ofisini kwake jijini Mwanza.
Monday, 18 May 2015
INTERNATIONAL ALBINISM AWARENESS DAY -13th June,2015
Kabanga school and center for people with Albinism is in preparations of the event to educate the society about Albinism and tell the why they should not kill/ mutilate PWA body parts.We expect before to start with a football tournament which is going to start on 20th May,2015.We expect to distribute flyers and brochures during tournament.Preparing banners,gifts for footballers and special food for PWA and guests on the date(13th June,2015).
You are welcome to donate anything for the day and or tournament.
By:MR.ISSA KAMBI(The head of the center for PWA and the other disabilities)
You are welcome to donate anything for the day and or tournament.
By:MR.ISSA KAMBI(The head of the center for PWA and the other disabilities)
Friday, 15 May 2015
Govt not doing enough to end albino killings
Geita albino Confederation Chairman Michael Kamuli gets emotional during an interview with a journalist on the government's effort to end the albino killings in the country.
By Mwassa Jingi
Posted Sunday, March 15 2015 at 13:34
Posted Sunday, March 15 2015 at 13:34
IN SUMMARY
Tragically, this right is now not enjoyed by albinos in the country after an emergence of some of the Tanzanians, who are hunting people with albinism and either chop off parts of their bodies and thus cause their grisly deaths or rather kill them first and then take the body parts for purely baseless grounds associated with superstition.
The right to life is a constitutional right of every person in the world and such it is provided for in Article 14 of The Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania, 1977.
Tragically, this right is now not enjoyed by albinos in the country after an emergence of some of the Tanzanians, who are hunting people with albinism and either chop off parts of their bodies and thus cause their grisly deaths or rather kill them first and then take the body parts for purely baseless grounds associated with superstition.
Since this social phenomenon emerged in 2006, we are told at least 76 people with albinism have been killed countrywide. Most of the killings so far have occurred in the Lake Zone.
The killings of albinos has tainted the image of Tanzania and we are now viewed as a nation that largely banks on superstition for material or political expediency in this 21st century.
Government agencies, non-governmental organisations, faith-based organisations and the international community not only have been condemning these grisly and barbaric killings of albinos, but have been trying to protect their lives without much success so far.
While only one year of 2011 since 2006 no albino killing was recorded, the situation has recently recurred, whereby within one or two months, two children with albinism have been abducted - one being found dead, while the other still missing.
This is a very disgusting situation! It is difficult to believe that a human being of normal intelligence can easily be convinced that part of an albino’s body can make him or her rich! This state of affairs makes Tanzania a country of strange people, since albinos are in many other countries, but hardly do we hear what we hear and see happening in this country.
It’s illogical to believe that some parts of an albino’s body can help somebody to get riches or be successful in life, while we see and know that albinos themselves are among the poorest people in Tanzania. If an albino’s body is associated with any good omen as the albino killers believe, then the albinos themselves would have been people of everything in life. But that story is not true.
We need public awareness campaigns to change these filthy beliefs and inculcate in those who believe it a new spirit – conversion. If we continue taking by granted this situation, these barbaric guys will continue hunting for albinos and killing them.
Recently, when addressing the nation, President Jakaya Kikwete was so much annoyed with the killings of albinos and after the meeting with the albino community on March 5, at State house, he pledged that he would do everything to stop these barbaric killings of albinos.
I compassionately support the president in the fight against albino killings and urge him and the entire government to use all arsenals at their disposal to get away with this disgraceful situation facing our nation for a numbers of years now.
Whatever the government did in the past to deal with the culprits is not enough and I think more concerted efforts are needed now to protect our fellow Tanzanians - people with albinism because like any human being they deserve to live and enjoy life in its fullness.(Source:The citizen)
Wednesday, 13 May 2015
Albinism in Tanzania: slow progress in combatting violence and discrimination
Albinos live with the risk of being killed, their body parts fetching high prices for witchcraft - but NGOs hope that change is coming
“This is possibly the worst time to be a person living with albinism in Tanzania,” says Amir Manento.
In October, citizens will go to the polls to vote in presidential and parliamentary elections. “Every election period brings with it a new cycle of killings. In between we have other smaller elections translating to more abductions, more killings.” Manento, a retired judge and human rights activist, has been at the forefront of campaigning for the rights of people living with albinism for decades. “We see an increase of witchcraft and the use of human body parts, particularly albino body parts, in the run-up to the general elections.” Albino body parts are associated with good luck, and as the country gears up for the elections, the demand for good luck charms goes up. Sacrifices during this time are thought by some to be a sure way of guaranteeing victory in the polls.
“Albino hunting came into the limelight around 10 years ago, particularly within the fishing and mining communities,” says Dr Benson Bana, a political science and public administration lecturer at the University of Dar es Salaam. Bana believes that some of the roots of the problem lie in the financial downturn in the area around Lake Victoria, one of the regions where there have been the most killings and abductions.
“A certain poverty touched our people after the privatisation of fishing activities in Lake Victoria,” says Bana. “Everything was being controlled, from where one could fish to the size of the holes in his fishing net. The result was diminished harvests. Every above-average catch by the little guys was then attributed to superstition. This is when witchdoctors started peddling the belief that people living with albinism or their body parts, most of whom coincidentally live in these regions, could be used as good luck charms.”
Bana believes that this devastating association was then passed on to neighbouring mining communities. “Eventually it caught wind and was looked upon as a legitimate way of acquiring riches and power by some individuals. Hence the association with politicians.”
Tanzania is thought to have one of the world’s largest populations of people living with albinism, a congenital disorder that robs skin, eyes and hair of their pigment. But for years this population of about 30,000 people has existed under the threat of abductions and ritual killings, and in recent years the situation appears to have worsened.
According to a report by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, a complete set of Albino body parts – including all four limbs, genitals, ears, tongue and nose – can fetch up to $75,000 (pdf).
The Tanzanian Albinism Society says it is almost impossible to know the numbers of those abducted or killed since the beginning of the year. What they are sure of, though, is that the number of victims will be higher than the two cases that made it into police records in 2013.
“Even last year the numbers might have been higher because these crimes are very intimate. Mostly a close family member, even a father, is involved in the killings and abductions. In such cases silence wins; his wife will probably be an accomplice in the crime. Nothing will be said of the matter again and the police will have no chance of prosecuting anyone,” says Severin Edward, programme coordinator for the Tanzanian Albinism Society.
A total of 155 cases of violation of albino rights have been reported to Tanzanian authorities since 2009, according to a study (pdf) released in March by Under The Same Sun, an NGO working to combat discrimination against people with albinism.
“Of these cases, 75 were deaths. We have also received 18 reports of grave violations,” said Don Sawatzky, director of operations for UTSS. The study, which gathered together data from 25 different countries in Africa, found reports of 145 albino killings, in addition to 226 violations that include mutilations, other forms of violence, and kidnappings.
UTSS has been actively pushing the United Nations for four key resolutions aimed at ending all forms of discrimination of people living with albinism.
However, Sawatzky argues that to describe the killings as a phenomenon propelled by recent economic hardship would be “to accept the easy answer”.
“Nobody really knows the origin of the killings, since documentation in Africa is not common other than through oral tradition. All we know for sure is that albinism has been ‘mythologised’ since time beyond memory. Muti murders, or ‘medicine’ killings, have a deep, longstanding history, and are a familiar concept to most Africans,” he says.
In Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, the nation’s first albino member of parliament, Isaac Mwaura, says it is time measures are put in place to end these killings and abductions, and that existing laws need to be adhered to by all affected countries.
“Nobody really knows the origin of the killings, since documentation in Africa is not common other than through oral tradition. All we know for sure is that albinism has been ‘mythologised’ since time beyond memory. Muti murders, or ‘medicine’ killings, have a deep, longstanding history, and are a familiar concept to most Africans,” he says.
In Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, the nation’s first albino member of parliament, Isaac Mwaura, says it is time measures are put in place to end these killings and abductions, and that existing laws need to be adhered to by all affected countries.
“Kenya has strict trafficking laws, the same as Tanzania. What makes it possible for criminals to take our children, mothers, fathers or brothers across borders and sell them off like commodities to witch doctors? Enforcement of laws is one of the weakest links in this war. We have become the hunted. Neither we nor our children are safe. Fathers are betraying their children’s trust and selling them off like unwanted baggage. Mothers are conspiring to traffic their own flesh and blood to senseless deaths.”
In Tanzania the government has been working with NGOs and civil society, and results are now being seen. “Never before have we seen so much effort from the government and the general public. At least we are now getting convictions, primarily because investigations are more thorough and new laws are being set up,” says Manento. “Although no executions have taken place, a total of 17 individuals have received the death sentence, some of them as recently as March, when four individuals, including the husband of the murdered victim, were convicted,” he said.
To win this war, NGOs at the forefront believe collusion within the community must come to an end. “We must educate families to understand that having such a child is not a gateway to quick riches. We then encourage the rest of the community to speak up,” says Edward. “The society needs to be more empowered and supported to co-operate. For instance, when family members are involved in killings or abductions it is quite difficult to get witnesses, because even they are not assured of their security.”
Sawatzky also believes that the war will be won, just not in the near future. “Like all forms of discrimination, it will take several generations to achieve. I will not see the war won in my lifetime. The youth and future generations are the best answer to this war,” he said.
More community sensitisation needs to be achieved, says Justus Kamugisha, regional police chief in Shinyanga, in the north of the country. “We need to make our people understand that there are no shortcuts to prosperity. Only hard, honest work pays. Taking the life of someone else, regardless of his condition, is simply murder, for which you will be charged.”(Source the Guardian)Pictures By;Ana Palacios
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