Albinism – being ‘an albino’ – is a condition where a person’s body does not produce any pigmentation. This leads to white hair, a very pale (or pink, because you can see the blood vessels through it) skin and eyes that are blue, but in such a pale way that the redness of the back of the eye shines through it.
Pigmentation is important to protect the skin and the eyes from UV radiation. Without this protection a person is far more likely to develop skin cancer. The eyes have very low tolerance for bright light and may have other problems with vision. This in itself deserves awareness raising. However, unfortunately there are greater problems attached to Albinism in certain parts of the world.
In certain parts of the world, where most people have a darker skin colour, albinism is seen as an aberration or a curse. Sometimes babies born with albinism are abandoned or killed. When I was about 30 years old, I had never seen – or never realised I’d seen – a person with albinism in my life. Then, as I started working in institutions caring for children who had been abandoned for medical reasons, I saw five or six children, ranging in age from newborn to five years old, in the space of one year. These were all perfectly healthy children, some of them needed glasses, all of them needed sunglasses when they went out and all of them needed a lot of sunblock whenever they ventured out of the house.
In parts of Africa – in quite a large number of countries – the biggest danger to people with albinism is not being thought to be cursed or dying young of skin cancer, the biggest danger is that people believe that there is a magical power in the bones of people with albinism. People – including children – with albinism risk being attacked and either be killed or have their limbs hacked off. The attacker will then use their bones, grinding them to a powder and ingesting the powder. It is thought that this either has healing properties or will provide special strength.
In a number of African countries, governments are now taking action to raise awareness of the facts regarding albinism, to dispel the myths surrounding them. And various countries are also taking harder action against attacks on people with albinism and doing more to protect them. For example, in Burundi the special protection offered to people with albinism included accompanying children with albinism to school, to make sure they would not be attacked on the way.
It is great that these starts have been made. But we need to continue to raise awareness of the facts regarding albinism, to get rid of the myths and the danger they pose to people.
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