Imagine that your church decided that people could get special blessings and healing from the marrow of your bones. Imagine your pastor began suggesting that your marrow be extracted so he could bless other parishioners. How would you react? Would you escape? Where would you go?
This is the dilemma of the albino community in Tanzania. Their skin, bones, and hair are being lauded as ingredients to "get rich quick" potions. In a country where food in ever increasing in price, potions are becoming more and more profitable. This means there is an unspoken bounty on the albino community. Their very lives are in danger as hits are taken out, some times by witch doctors themselves, to get the "magical elements" of their body.
In April the President Kilkwete appointed his first albino Member of Parliament, Al-Shymaa Kway-Geer. She said, "I didn’t expect it. I think the President chose me because he believed in me. I’m a very hard-working woman." She hopes to use her position to help educate the public about albinism and end the discrimination.
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