Teaching just one person that albinism isn't a curse is worth it.

Georgia Gray, a student at Oxford University contacted Asante Mariamu last January, offering to help our organization.  We were fortunate that this compassionate and energetic young woman volunteered to travel to Tanzania with Doug this summer.  In the second part of her story, Georgia describes one of the success stories we encountered in Tanzania.  Asante Mariamu will work closely with Sister Maria Helena to expand her work and replicate it in other areas.

 

Sister Maria Helena is a nurse who lived in Wisconsin for over a decade when she heard the reports of the killings in Tanzania.  Originally from Tanzania herself, Sister Helena knew that her calling was to return to her home country in order to help children with albinism in any way she could.  She bought her own house and set up a small sanctuary, and children with albinism were brought to her for protection.   She provided these children with an education, food and a warm place to sleep. She gave them the safety that they often so desperately lacked within their own small rural villages.  

But more than that, these children were so very happy.  

For the small time we were there, we had met over a hundred albino children all in differing physical and mental states.  Often these children were shy and nervous in the presence of strangers.  Their skin, even at schools we visited, would frequently be already pock-marked with pre-melanomas and various skin tags across their face and arms.  One girl, just 11 years old, had a scar so deep on her face that at it’s height of infection her cheek bones must have been visible.  The scar wasn’t from some hideous attack, but merely from the sun.  Yet the children at Sister Helena’s, although young and none over 7, had the most pristine smooth skin imaginable. It was our last stop on our trip and we were all in awe at the remarkable condition of their skin. These children were being well cared for, especially with respect to the sun. 

Our journey was very difficult in this respect.  Although we met many people who dedicated their time and resources to keeping people with albinism safe and protected from attacks and the omnipresent threat of the sun, there were far too few resources to go around.  We provided hats, sunglasses and sun cream wherever we went, and indeed, there was no feeling quite as touching as seeing a class full of children proudly donning their orange sun hats and sunglasses. But by far the most valuable thing provided was education.  

Doug’s talks to children and parents alike will hopefully encourage the use of the hats and sunglasses, but will also serve to change the behaviour of the community itself.  If only one person at each place absorbed the facts about albinism, and could teach their neighbours or family members that it is not a curse, then the trip was worth every effort made in it. 

I’m writing my dissertation at the moment, and all I know now is how much I cannot begin to understand.  The problems in Tanzania are deep-rooted and incredibly powerful and will not be easy to change.  Whilst people have no alternatives to traditional beliefs you cannot expect behaviour to change markedly.  But that is what makes Asante Mariamu’s mission so important. It not only provides the tools to protect those individuals but arms people with the knowledge to change the way they think.  It will not be an easy ideology to change but I truly believe it can be done.  With Asante Mariamu’s work, not just individually but also by facilitating the amazing people we met in Tanzania, the problem can hopefully, finally, be solved.

We hope that Georgia will continue to use her considerable passion and talent to make a difference in this world, and we are grateful for her contributions.  Asante sana, Georgia – and what are you doing next summer?