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25 year old Mama Yusufu Mwanahawa breastfeeds her one year old baby son, Yusufu Sereman. She doesn't have a proper job but survives by buying large bricks of soap which she breaks into smaller bars and sells by walking door to door. "Life is hard for me," she says. Her problems started when she gave birth to Yusufu. "The moment my husband saw Yusufu he got very angry and left me, saying that I had slept with a 'musungu', a white man. He couldn't believe that he also carried the albinism gene." Mama Yusufu receives a little help from the Tanzania Albino Society. "Without them I wouldn?t be able to make it till the end of the month." She knows that she has to protect Yusufu against the sunlight but she is forced to take him with her when she is selling soap. Discrimination against albinos is a serious problem throughout sub-Saharan Africa, but recently in Tanzania albinos have been killed and mutilated, victims of a growing criminal trade in albino body parts fuelled by superstition and greed. Limbs, skin, hair, genitals and blood are believed by witch doctors to bring good luck, and are sold to clients for large sums of money, carrying with them the promise of instant wealth.
Dieter Telemans/Panos Pictures/Felix Features 8 Sep 2008
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