Post from Geita

Geita, Tanzania

30 May 2014

 

Hello everyone. I am Tjitske de Groot, 22 years old, from the Netherlands. Together with a friend I am working as an intern at Nelico in Geita, Tanzania. We are working for the albinism department of this Tanzanian NGO. We are collaborating with the Tanzania Albino Society (TAS). This is an organization that advocates the rights of people with albinism in Tanzania. TAS Geita is the local branch of this national organization. The objectives of the organizations are:

• To empower people with albinism
• To raise awareness about albinism in the larger community
• To sponsor people with albinism to go to school
• To sponsor people with albinism to get treatments against skin cancer
• To advocate for the rights for people with albinism
• To provide people with albinism with information about albinism and inform them how to take care of themselves. TAS gets sunscreen from their donors and distributes it to their members.

At the moment TAS Geita depends on the NGO Nelico. During this internship we are trying to make TAS Geita more self-reliant.

In one of the first meetings with TAS we asked them about their challenges in Geita, concerning their organisation. We noticed that the members of TAS find it very hard to organise themselves, which is partly caused by a lack of funds. We started with capacity building trainings, and we decided to organise a day for people with albinism in Geita district.

During the training we organised this special day in Geita. It was a day for people with albinism to come together, to feel stronger as a group. The day was also meant to raise awareness among the community and to highlight the situation of people with albinism to the local and regional government leaders.

The day started with a demonstration.

 

The demonstration was followed by a speech given by the Chairman of the Tanzania Albino Society (Isack Timothy) and the Treasurer (Maneno Pelanya).

The Head of Geita district responded to the questions of TAS Geita. There was a doctor present who was able to give information on albinism.

The day was a great success. More than 100 people attended the day. The whole day was covered by Star TV. With this link you can see the report of the day (Report in Swahili):