Enact-laws-to-protect-people-with-albinism

People with albinism are demanding the government to provide low-cost sunscreen lotions and creation of empowerment opportunities that are availed to those living with disabilities.

Nyengeterai Mungwaru

In Zimbabwe, persons with albinism are victims of multiple forms of discrimination due to the color of their skin and are sometimes ritualized or seen as the product of witchcraft.

Due to this, they are often systematically excluded from education, employment, and social opportunities on an equal basis with others.

Signs of Hope director Samantha Sibanda said the government should ensure an inclusive disability-responsive budget and put in a mechanism that allows for the establishment of a plant to manufacture cheap sunscreen lotion for people with albinism.

“We are trying to push for a budget allocation for an albinism fund that will ensure they get access to sunscreen lotions, umbrellas, sunhats, and sunglasses,” said Sibanda.

She said they are fighting for inclusion for people with albinism who have not been benefitting from the privileges that people with disabilities have, considering that people with disabilities can import cars whilst those with albinism cannot.

Nkomwa Foundation Trust Founder Pick Nkomwa said the government should enact laws that benefit the disability community and ensure compliance with disability mainstreaming in both the public and private sector.

Albinism and autism among others have not been classified as forms of disability under the Disability Act of 1992. Albinism is a rare, non-contagious, genetically inherited condition found in both men and women and presents as a lack of melanin pigmentation in hair, skin, and eyes, causing vulnerability to the sun and bright lights.

The national disability policy of 2021 regards albinism as one of the types of disability and Nkomwa said the policy should be made into a law.

He said his organization has tried by all means to include people with albinism in empowerment programs.

“We have provided support with income-generating projects and the organisation also trains people with albinism on leadership and provides them with spaces for self-representation,” he said.

Zimbabwe Parents of Handicapped Children Association Acting Chairperson Fidellis Gunde said they have been advocating and lobbying for the formulation and implementation of statutes with a positive bearing in the lives of people with disabilities.

He said the government must provide materials compatible for people with albinism’s health requirements.

“It must be the obligation of the government to give people with albinism preference in the Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM) as well as raising awareness on albinism,” he said.

Gunde also said they have been mobilizing caregivers of people with disabilities to establish Parent Support Groups.