On Thursday 5^th November (7-9pm) I will be holding a wonderfully engaging and informative evening titled Tanzania, Albinism and Health Care Needs. Join us at West Cypress Church (5471 Cerritos Ave, Cypress CA 90630) and enjoy dessert, video shorts, and a guided discussion with panel members who will share their passion for the human rights and social inclusion of people with albinism in Tanzania.  

In the fall of 2009, while watching a documentary late one night,  I became acutely aware of the atrocities perpetrated against people with albinism in Tanzania. I was incredibly moved and thought that I must do something to help the situation. Through my clinical work in the U.S., I knew that all persons with albinism had some level of vision impairment and that this limitation must have a profound impact in Tanzania as well.  At the time, I connected vision to survival - whether directly or indirect.  I had short term medical mission experience and I understood the visual impairment of persons with albinism, at least in the U.S., so I believed I could do something to help in Tanzania. I knew then that God was pushing on me to do something and through open doors, I volunteered with Peter Ash and Under The Same Sun. The feeling of urgency never went away and now six years since that first calling, I am the low vision program director for Standing Voice where we have built a network of vision care providers to provide access to care for anyone with albinism in Tanzania - even in the most remote areas. Every year we are increasing the number of people we can serve. This fundraising event is aimed at enrolling 150 school children in the program by the end of November. I need your help to get there!

I aim to raise $7,500 from my event to enroll 150 new students into the Standing Voice Low Vision Programme. I need your support to ensure students with albinism are not inhibited by their low vision but are fully equipped to claim their rightful stake in Tanzanian society. Please donate today.

It costs only $50 to provide comprehensive low

vision care to a student with albinism

Each student enrolled in the Standing Voice Low Vision Programme receives:

-        An eye test by a low vision specialist

-        A monocular telescope to aid reading from the blackboard

-        Sunglasses to protect light-sensitive eyes

-        A low vision education session and booklet

-        A bag to store low vision devices

-        Prescription glasses (if required)

About the Standing Voice Low Vision Programme

Optometry services are extremely limited in Tanzania, so the unique vision needs of people with albinism are often overlooked in school. As a direct result the vast majority of Tanzanians with albinism are uneducated, unemployed and trapped in a structural cycle of poverty.

Our Low Vision Programme provides low vision care and education to people with albinism in Tanzania, enabling students with albinism to achieve their educational and professional potential. Clinics operate inside schools every 6 months, in 11 locations across 7 regions of Tanzania.

We:

o   Train Tanzanian personnel to run clinics and refer the most severely visually impaired to specialist centres

o   Provide visual aids, like monocular telescopes and prescription glasses, directly to students in school

o   Educate teachers and parents about the low vision of children with albinism

o   Monitor beneficiaries’ progress after receiving our service

“With the right visual aids children with albinism are able to read from the black board and excel with their education just like other children”

Teacher at a low vision clinic site

So far we have screened, examined and enrolled 647 people with albinism on our programme and distributed 2,145 vision devices in total. We predict over 1,000 people with albinism will be incorporated by December 2016, and aim to eventually provide all people with albinism in Tanzania with access to our low vision services.

About Standing Voice

Standing Voice promotes social inclusion and works to stop human rights violations against marginalised groups. We exist to give the disempowered vital tools and platforms to speak back to their society and reassert their presence and equality. We strive to nurture people’s understanding of others so that in the future these marginalised groups will be embraced by society. And in the meantime, we provide the essential basic needs they have been unrightfully denied. 

We currently promote the social inclusion of those living with albinism in Tanzania. The stigma that surrounds them has been ingrained within society for many generations and throughout their lives they battle with prejudice, social exclusion and isolation. Seen as a curse from God, they are believed to bring bad luck to the households they are born in to. Many are killed at birth or rejected by their families. Judged by their skin colour alone they are continually dehumanised and ostracised within their communities.

In the face of such extreme prejudice people living with albinism suffer multiple deprivations in Tanzania. Marginalisation from essential health services has led to epidemic rates of skin cancer. As a result people with albinism only have a 2% chance of seeing their fortieth birthday. In addition people with albinism face many challenges at all levels of national education system. This has created illiteracy and a low level of employment. To put this in numbers: Merely 10% of children with albinism in Tanzania are enrolled in secondary school, compared to the national average of 65%.

The stigmatisation facing people with albinism has reached an unimaginable new level in recent years with over 70 people brutally murdered in Tanzania since 2006. Many others have been left mutilated. This practice has been fuelled by witchcraft. Witchdoctors say that magic charms are more powerful if they contain body parts from people with albinism, which has led to a lucrative criminal trade in these body parts.

You can hear many of our beneficiaries tell their story in this short video:

Ukerewe Voices

Standing Voice Programmes

We take a holistic approach in our work to meet the needs of people with albinism, which includes advocacy at local, national and international levels, provision of health care and educational services as well as community training initiatives. 

Skin Cancer Prevention and Treatment

Education Fund

Emergency Development Projects

Creating Community Centres

Outreach, Advocacy, Education

Low Vision