[Music] an ordinary man whom I can share my story with anyone I remember when I was born my mother was add by the community members to poison [Music] me if you are born in the village like my Village and you have the color which I have for sure you have to suffer to be born with albinism in Tanzania is very tough because um people think that we do not die people are being hunting us people are being chopped our body parts we are being isolated because of our skin car people used to call us Z which means [Music] ghost say meridians merian meridians merians why do we call sometimes I'm scared still very scared Kabula is paralyzed with anxiety every time she has to leave her school campus as it instantly takes her back to an event that happened 3 years ago I was walking with my sister when a car stopped beside us and a man stared at me through the window then 2 days before the attack another man came to our house and asked for some water my parents gave him water and asked where he was from but he didn't reply he didn't look like one of the locals but he didn't say anything 3 Days Later three men broke into our house the first was the one who stared at me from the car the second was the one who come for water and I didn't recognize the third it was about 9:30 they knocked but my mother didn't answer the door so they kicked it down and told her not to scream they were looking for money and Mom suggested that they take the bicycle they just laughed after that they attacked me and cut off my hand one of them brought gasoline over and told Mom to cauterize the [Music] wound [Music] kaba's attack may actually have ensured her a better future than most albino Africans after that act of violence kaba's parents sent her to a special camp for albino children where International Aid organizations helped her to move on to a prestigious school by Tanzanian standards her time there ends next year josephat toner and his colleagues are on a long country drive from tanzania's largest city darus Salam to Lake Victoria a region where there are many albino communities Tona was born there himself it is a tough Journey because I needed to travel and and you know it's a you know because of the situation because of the situation traveling sometimes is very risky they meet their first albino in search of help before even leaving the city in the suburbs they meet a teenager who's begging for money from passing drivers stuck in darus salam's Neverending traffic jams why are you here don't you know how bad it is for you to stand out in the sun for such a long time I know but I'm alone and need money to live many people with albinism are poor and they are being discriminated from the society and sometimes you can see when this guy whom he was begging every day at school is the same for the albino children they wake up early eat breakfast go for lessons and have lunch and dinner one of the three campus guards will be sure to lock the gates at 600 every evening there are 100 students in this boarding school all with similar backgrounds they were all born in what's come to be known as the lake Zone a rural area in Northern Tanzania close to The Majestic Lake Victoria all were born with albanism a condition characterized by the total absence of the skin pigment melanin that's why these people have such pale skin and tend to have poor [Music] vision it's really as for me people around here generally don't talk about it very much but I can't stop wondering I keep asking why does it happen I mean most of the parents who send their children here don't usually come back again ever not even to visit or check that everything is fine with their kids there's an old Superstition here about having an albino child living in your house they think it's a curse that it's bad luck to be honest there are a lot of people who believe that sending their child to our school will lift this curse [Music] Assan is 16 years old he's one of the oldest students here at the special camp for albino children my name is Hassan Hami I'm from kagama I've been living here as a refugee since 2009 because it's the only place where I can be safe I got here during a rise in the persecution of albino people things are really dangerous my parents found out about this center from the media and they decided to send me to this Camp asan finished Elementary School long ago and should have left this educational institution but somehow the teenager persuaded the authorities to allow him to stay and now he works every day as an assistant to a primary school teacher her son who was offered last year has no Illusions about what he could expect beyond the protected boundary of the camp when my parents saw that their baby was albino they were completely shocked they asked the doctors what was wrong with me they just wanted to figure it out one of the doctors in the hospital explained that this is a normal condition actually my mother loved me a lot but when I went to school I caused a lot of trouble and a lot of problems for her my classmates were really frightened of me they were too scared even to touch me they said that if they touched me i' would just start bleeding or maybe even just Disappear Completely [Music] Tanzania has a high albino population only around one in 20,000 babies is usually born with this rare pigment deficiency but in East Africa it's eight times higher the number of people born with melanin abnormality is estimated at 150 to 200,000 in the more remote regions of Tanzania a white skinn child represents a stigma on the whole family and on top of that low education levels still mean that superstitious villagers associate albino people with an almost medieval variety of irrational fears to be born in Africa and if you have a different car in Africa especially white and you are there for thousands of thousands those who are black really is an issue many people are diding didn't understand well about albinism people thought that I am ghost and sometimes people thought I'm I'm less human beings the start of the 21st Cent Cy saw a widespread breakout in Albino hunting according to official information dozens of white-skinned victims were reported killed every year but the real number is likely to be much higher considering that many of the attacks were never reported to or recorded by the police the victimization always followed the same [Music] pattern so tell me how did it it was about 8:30 in the evening on July 26th 2009 the dogs outside the house started barking when I was putting my daughter to bed at 8:40 someone started knocking down the door three men broke in and grabbed my husband they were carrying two machetes and an ax and they told me not to scream or they'd kill me then they immediately started chopping my husband into pieces right there in front of me one of them cut off his ear another cut off his leg it was as if they were butchering a cow one of the kids started screaming and a man yelled shut your child up or we'll kill you all the neighbors heard everything but no one came to help everybody was just too scared after witnessing her husband's gruesome death Maria had to raise five children on her own she left her house and settled for a mud hut a year ago the police called her a criminal investigation had found the men suspected of her husband's murder Maria recognized all three of them during the court hearing they explained that a local witch doctor had instructed them to deliver various albino body [Music] parts this is this is my B this is my bab I sleep in here open H has now lived for 5 years at the boarding school for albino Africans his whole world is within the campus everything he owns fits easily into this small metal box my this is a mine my cap special for preventing sun today his regular and settled daily routine has been disrupted we have in this in this box again we have clothes clothes this will be used as you know many children are being the parents are bringing them them here but they do not have enough equipment I mean enough clothes so we thought we have to give to to to the children local authorities were shocked by the wave of albinos being murdered in the 2000s in that situation the government had to set up a number of camps whereby these children will be taken care of and this bhang Center is one of such centers with a population of about 24 8 children with albinism what we are missing now is inclusion if you send me to the camp today it's really that is ex exclusion because I would like to live like other people the way how they live in the community but we are missing we are you know if you see children like the children with albinism are in the camp it's really you cannot believe it's unbelievable story but it's true story [Music] does the media lead us or we lead the media privacy versus security all right your party uh where's it going the questions that no one is asking with the guests that you deserve answers from it's all on politicking only on RT [Music] what we've seen is a series of explosions go off between police are trying to clear out the square as you can see a lot of people we're going to be moving this genuine here War short changing every minute no la la no weapons I have my own weapon which is microphone which I need by the way lots of people think that's exciting all the time but in these cases you do have to wait a lot for sometimes for nothing actually there's so many other elements in broadcast journalist that you have to deal with it's not just only about the story is you're being judged everything you say is being judged how you say it is being judged how you look you're being judged uh weight while it's being Jed up you know all of these elements can add a lot of [Music] [Music] stress [Music] [Music] cross talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want my name is josephat Turner who do you think I am look I'm white and he's black but I'm a human being too just like you you're a ghost a ghost yeah you're a ghost touch my hand does that feel like the hand of a ghost josephat is visibly upset he had hoped that in his home Village People would be more tolerant and better informed but he soon learns that the attitudes of modern school children towards albino children have barely changed from the superstitious stereotyping Joseph had had to endure as a child this is the school where actually I grown up and I I started here from standard one up to standard s when I was here I was alone many children actually didn't know what is the albinism so sometimes I wanted to play with them but really they ran away because they were told that uh you know albinism [Music] s this is where I live it's my corner do you want to see where I sleep a tiny 2 square met spot of land in the open air is what 50-year-old s calls home for 3 years he's been forced to live with his sister and at her expense because he can no longer find work say has become virtually disabled simply by the color of his skin it was in 2010 I was collecting dry branches from the forest when two messai men came up and asked if I had any tobacco I did have some with me and when I bent down to pick up my tobacco they hit me on the back of my head with a stick they hit me three times two strikes to the back of my head and then they punched me in the face I was knocked out and when I came around I saw that my left hand was gone s's attackers were never found his severed left hand was probably traded on the thriving Underground Market where albino body parts are highly valued by local Witch [Music] Doctors people were emphasized that if you get a body part of an albino you'll become rich the body parts of people with albinism are being found today which doctors in Tanzania witch doctors or traditional healers are endowed with enormous power and authority people will turn to them for all kinds of everyday advice no one will ever know which healer first suggested that making a potion with an albino's bones could cure any disease make someone rich or ensure Good Fortune but the barbaric practice spread rapidly throughout the leg Zone in the 21st [Music] century during their travels josephat and his colleagues had the rare opportunity to to talk to Mrs Juma one of the Region's most powerful and influential Witch Doctors juma's body is said to be possessed by the spirit of her long departed grandmother whenever she falls into a trance and so here she claims to be speaking on behalf of her [Music] grandmother these witch doctors are liars of course I know that there are a few of them who do indeed say bring me an albino's hand or an albino's ear and I'll make you rich but this is not magic this is just fraud but I never told any of them to do so they made it up themselves now they make money out of it personally I only use traditional magic and for our craft we never use methods like [Music] that [Music] a girl used to live in this house she was just 2 years old when she died of malaria The Undertakers at the local Cemetery refused to bury her there because they were scared that if anyone raided her grave they'd be held to blame and so the parents had to bury her inside their home when asked they just said that they buried their daughter a long time ago and wouldn't say where that was because shortly before this in the neighboring Village an albino's grave was dug up and the body was dismembered Yousef also lived in a small village for several years he remained in constant fear when a teenage albino was mutilated in my Village and had his leg cut off I was really scared for my own protection my family decided that I should sleep under granddad's bed at night instead of my own bed it was awful I always carried a machete with me but I didn't really have any [Music] problems [Music] Farmer John is by local standards an independent and wealthy man he has a big house a substantial family and a large herd of cattle JN is used to being self-reliant and when he heard rumors that the locals were hunting albinos he was ready to protect his own white-skinned children look I was prepared to defend my children with the help of this to me in 2007 when Lucas was still little a strange man visited the neighbors and asked about a white child and where he was living but they didn't tell him anything he went away and never came back but I was so terrified so worried that I used to keep my Spear and machete at my side at all times in addition to the Head Hunters and Witch Doctors albinos also face another Eternal enemy the son because of the lack of pigmentation their skin has no protection from harmful ultraviolet light statistically 85% of albinos will die before reaching the age of 40 most will fall victim to skin [Music] cancer for me the disease started a few months ago first it was no more than a small tumor a bit like a mole I barely even noticed it at first and then it started growing really fast and now as you can see it's turned into this lump I went to see the local doctors in moza they only said it was some kind of inflammation it was only a few months after that that they finally told me that I needed to come here but I didn't have any money to pay for travel I got here 2 days ago this Hospital in darus Salam is the only clinic in the whole country able ble to use modern methods to treat skin cancer radio and chemotherapy the treatment is free but relatively few albinos can make the journey now we see an increase in the number of cases of cancer in the albinos they come with an advanced cancer like you can see this patient he had spent almost 6 months going back and forth that's why the cancer Advance whereby the treatment for cure is very challenging after dinner Hassan plans to venture outside the camp he has a little money after some generous visitors have been to see him he wants to spend it at the local market his shopping list includes a new keying sandals and a Manchester United t-shirt his favorite football team until the evening when the har full sun sets he'll study English this is a summary geography geography is a study of money and Surround our environment Hassan hopes that knowledge will be useful because sooner or later he knows he'll have to leave the camp as he drifts off to sleep his dreams are just the same as many other African children one day Hassan wants to be rich I can't imagine what my future will be like when I leave the camp but I would very much like to become a businessman I need some startup money for this but I'm an orphan and unfortunately I'm not on very good terms with my other relatives they're ashamed of me because of the color of my skin I have nowhere to go I thought of becoming a musician but that's not likely to work out Kabula will finish school in a year and has to make an important life decision her dreams are not the same as H son's she doesn't want riches she dreams of Justice I want to be a lawyer and help other people like me other albinos to protect them the three men who attacked Kabula and severed her arm were arrested she saw them in court and now says she's forgiven them I was seting direct L opposite them and they didn't say a thing I also kept my silence I know that they only did what they did to escape poverty all they wanted was some money I looked at them and I felt sorry for [Music] them [Music] the education will minimize we remove these barriers which now we are facing means discrimination if the community will agree to support people with albinism in education field but if not education for sure this group still behind of the world josephat has returned to darus Salam after his long trip through the lake Zone he plans to go back to the north again after a while he sees educating people and giving lectures as his mission in life and never tires of repeating the same facts over and again okay my blood and your blood it doesn't mean that if I cut here maybe my blood will will be blue or yellow not my car has forced me to be a refugees in my home country because of my car what I'm looking as josephat I'm looking for a Justice