People find it easy to speak about people with disabilities, or about people who are different than the majority. But has anyone ever wondered how it feels to be born differently and to be subject to discrimination and marginalization?
Hamid Mo Kamara is a Senior Counsellor and Psychosocial Therapist and cofounder of the Sierra Leone Association for Persons with Albinism (SLAPWA). He talks about what it feels like to be a person living with albinism in Sierra Leone, about his work helping his community and the need for inclusion into government and civil service structure.
Question: Have you heard any myths or misconceptions about people living with albinism?
Yes. The most popular one is that persons living with Albinism are immortal, that they don’t die. And when it is time for them to depart the universe, they will just disappear. That is one of the most popular myths. It’s a complete lie.
Some say that persons living with albinism cannot see. Partly, we are born with some eye deficiency, but that doesn’t mean that we are blind, we can see and go about are normal business as normal persons.
Sometime ago, someone met me and asked, do persons with albinism die? These are some of the myths. Others say we don’t die, we are immortal and when is time [to leave the earth] we just vanish and disappear. Some say that we are blind, some say that we are evil, we are witches and wizards.
Question: What should the government do to support the people living with albinism?
The government should look at the Disability Act and try to incorporate persons living with albinism under the disabilities section, for benefits like education, employment, and so on. I think the government clearly left us out on [right to] education. Also, the government itself should try to be employing qualified persons living with albinism because there is a lot more that we can do, which people don’t normally see because they are busy stigmatizing us.
I have never seeing persons living with albinism vie for public office. I have never seen a president in Sierra Leone employing or recommending a person living with albinism for any public office. The government should also talk with the private sector to see how best they can employ persons living with albinism, because they are rarely seen in these sectors.
Looking at the last census conducted with Statistics Sierra Leone, they are clearly clueless about the number of persons living with albinism in Sierra Leone, I think they should also include that in their next census because it wasn’t there under the persons with disabilities category. They clearly left us out, which is bad. Also, whenever they are doing national engagement, the government clearly left us out. Need I mention the Bintumani III which was done in our absence. Not one of the organizations that deal with albinism issues was invited to participate or to give a statement under the disabilities spectrum.
We don’t need that special treatment. We only need that level playing field.
By Stephen V. Lansana
03/03/2021. ISSUE NO: 8013