By Hatice Kesgin
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania
Turkey has started to help children with albinism in Tanzania, who are socially excluded and have been attempted to be killed, through a charity called Turkey-Tanzania Aid Foundation, Yesim Davutoglu has said.
The Turkey-Tanzania Aid Foundation's founder, Yesim Davutoglu -- the wife of Turkey's ambassador to Tanzania, Ali Davutoglu -- said that Turkey comes to Tanzanians' minds when albinos need help or protection from killing.
Albinos have suffered widespread torture in Tanzania and some other African countries, because of some bizarre beliefs that people with albino body parts can bring good luck and can treat some diseases.
The founder Davutoglu stressed that the Turkey-Tanzania Aid Foundation was established for helping people with albinism in Tanzania and the founder Davutoglu has planned an "Albino Village."
The project village will play an important role in the protection of their fundamental rights by establishing a safe and sheltered zone.
The albino issue is a major problem in their society and the albino people are under threat of violence, she stressed.
According to a 2009 report of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the market for body parts of persons with albinism was “generated by big-money buyers who use them as talismans to bring luck and above all wealth.”
Another report from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights released in 2013 quoted senior police officers in Dar es Salaam confirming that “a complete set of albino body parts – including all four limbs, genitals, ears, tongue and nose – was fetching the equivalent of 75,000 US dollars.”
Around 1,000 albino children will shelter in the complex that will be built by the Turkish NGO in Dar Es Salaam.
Many albino babies and children have been abandoned by their families and the jilted albino children will be rehabilitated and will continue to get medical treatment.
The albino village will also prevent direct sunlight from reaching the village to protect the children.
The metabolic disorder is known as albinism and a patient of albinism is called an albino.
According to official data, 15,000 albinos live in Tanzania.
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