March highlights albinism issues

PEOPLE with disabilities, led by the Tassie Foundation, took to the streets in Pretoria on Saturday to show support for those with albinism.

The march, which culminated with the delivery of a memorandum at the Union Buildings, was supported by the wheelchair-bound, partially blind and deaf.

It called for the Department of Basic Education to give pupils with albinism an opportunity to access mainstream schools, and not those for children with special needs.

The group also called on the Department of Justice and Correctional Services and other legal entities to impose harsher sentences on those found guilty of killing, raping and committing other “dehumanising” and criminal acts against people with albinism.

Tassie Foundation chairperson Bruce Sithole said people with albinism suffered a lot, and the government had excluded them in many sectors.

Debbie Sebola, who was at the march, said the aim stretched from killings to ugly stares and name-calling directed at people with albinism. “We hope this will create awareness that we are also people, and the public needs to stop being mean to us.”

Annah Mojapelo said: “People must transfer this knowledge to their children because we are called names by little children.

“I hope that the awareness goes to the grassroots, and that even the smallest child will know that people with albinism are normal,” she said.

Mojapelo said it was difficult for parents to take their children to mainstream schools because they wanted to shield them from being victimised.

Damaris Sithole said people with albinism had to fight to be accommodated everywhere.

She said even essentials such as sunscreens were not covered in by medical aid.