Please click on a link to read the attached story:

Mwanahawa and Jufusu

Matthew Mlolwa

Kidawa and Mwinyi

Gaston Mchera

Kessy

Albino United Soccer Team

If you are interested in helping one of the people or groups above, please let me know.

I used the first day to get settled in and make calls to arrange meeting the people from TAS (Tanzanian Albino Society) and we met early the next morning. I wanted to use this meeting primarily as an exchange of information and planning session for my photo project. TAS has 5,600 albino members in Dar es Salaam alone, and a total of 100,700 throughout the country. We made a plan that I spend 2-3 weeks in Dar and then 3-4 weeks traveling to the more rural areas around Mwanza, Mara, Kaigera, Shinyanga ( to the north west) and Mbeya in the Southern Highlands. These are the areas most affected by killing of albinos for use of their body parts in witchcraft. We also discussed the possibility of a guide/interpreter from TAS accompanying me on the trip out of Dar. TAS was thrilled when I told them that I had brought a donation of UV protective clothing (shirts, trousers & hats) from SUN PRECAUTIONS. TAS has their Head Quarters in a small gate lodge at Ocean Road Cancer Institute (ORCI), and a group of albinos were scheduled to visit the clinic that afternoon so we arranged to distribute some of the clothing then. The group met outside under what I now call 'the meeting tree' and selected what they needed. I have never seen people so excited over hats, –but, when you consider the searing sun and how badly it affects their sensitive skin it's no surprise. Clothing like this is just not available here, and even if it was, so many of the albino community are so poor that they would struggle to afford it. (See attached photos) The poverty stems from many issues – my optimism of that first day was – and continues to be – thoroughly tested the more I see and hear of how big those issues are.

Albinos in general are very under educated. It's a bit of a vicious circle – lack of money, particularly in rural areas, inhibits attending school in the first place. For those who do go they face 2 more issues. The first is discrimination by other students and teachers, who allegedly ignore them and refuse to make provisions for vision problems of albino students. The second is the problem of vision. Albinos almost all have poor vision and, being near sighted, to read they have to hold the page right up to their nose. Reading is an arduous and slow process, and so, at school many simply get left behind and drop out. Lack of education prevents obtaining any sort of well paying job, so poverty compounds the health issues. Health issues are primarily Vision problems, and Skin cancers. On the second day I visited the Albino patients. OCRI has one inpatient ward – essentially one long room with beds all along each side of the room – maybe 40 or so patients – ranging from children with some badly disfiguring facial tumors, to older men, and women, including the Albino patients. I had spent an hour or so chatting with the Albino patients before we went into the ward to take photos. As with each person I photograph I want to hear from him or her – their personal story – what matters to them – and to figure out what realistically they need. Talking to the patients was tough – many of them came to ORCI (East Africa's only oncology Institute) from districts up to 2 days bus journey away. Some of them have tumors and lesions that they ignored for years – up to 4 years in one case – because they either thought it would resolve itself and just go away, or they couldn't afford to go and seek treatment. For many of the Albino inpatients families donated the bus fare to Dar es Salaam. Now, although some of them have been officially discharged, they don't have money for the fare home, and so languish at ORCI. This of course is not ideal for anyone. The institute does have a fund for patients which comes from donations, This fund covers everything from treatment to expenses, but, is currently out for transport and general pocket money patients often need for food, drinks and basic hygiene products.

So much of this has been overwhelming on many levels. One is seeing the perceived needs, the second is ascertaining or confirming what those needs actually are, and how they can realistically be addressed. The ideal is to have a sustainable system that funds go towards. I've felt more like an investigative reporter than photographer, and have to be honest in saying that photography has taken second fiddle. It's not always the right thing to take a photograph when there is so much that needs to be given. I feel strongly that the need is very real, that your donations will go to help meet the need, and that I am working very hard to meet with as many people, from the albinos, to the TAS organization, to the ORCI director, to some philanthropic business people here, so that I can do my level best to ensure that your donation meets the people in need and goes to work effectively.

Life in Tanzania works on a very different pace than life at home. I couldn't get real Internet access going for about a week, had no phone and realized how isolated that feeling was. We've had essentially 2 days down because of heavy rains that turned some of the streets into muddy floods – the sun is back in force and it's hard to imagine how flooded the streets were in places just a few days ago.

I've been working on arranging transport to do the trip north for a full week now, and still have not managed to get a definite agreement. This has been the case with most of the things I've been trying to arrange or co-ordinate. Patience is not my best virtue, but thankfully I'm stubborn!

LA seems to be the forerunner in traffic jams in the US – well, Dar will give LA a run for its money any day. There are traffic rules, (I think!) but often people seem to make up their own. The hotel I'm staying at is less than 10 minutes out of Dar on a busy road but it usually takes up to an hour to do the journey in the evening because of the traffic jam. The road is like a dual carriageway – 2 lanes in each direction. Well, people leaving the city in the evening didn't like the look of the line of traffic in front of them so cut over the division into the traffic in the approaching lanes. Then caused another log going into town. And it's not as if people are all single drivers. Most of the traffic is Dalla Dallas, which are like minibuses, looking like they're about to fall apart, overloaded with passengers all crammed in together, hanging out windows. People on motorbikes and pedestrians take their lives into their hands every time they cross the road, or hap hazzardly change lanes. I've been laughed at more than once for wearing a seatbelt. Then last night I found myself on the back of a truck sitting on the edge, hanging onto the roof bar on my way to a funeral. (Sort of feeling that life really is transient) The hotel I'm staying at is family run. They're a family with an affinity for Ireland – most of them have gone to be educated there, and some of them have married and settled in Ireland. The receptionist, Patricia is leaving for Dublin next month, and is in part excited, and in part scared to death. We've become friends, and so when her grandmother died yesterday I went to the wake. Men stayed outside – looked like they'd moved the living room furniture out into the yard – and the women sat on rugs on the floor, and with backs to the walls decorated with Catholic images and the Crucifix, they prayed and sang hymns in harmony. Religious or not, their voices were so soothing and so moving. The rollercoaster of life swung from the funeral to a wedding in the same family this evening. The wedding is being here at the hotel and I've bee invited. Along with some South Africans on honeymoon (here because their flights home have been cancelled) – Should be interesting.

The other major event that was interesting be here for was, of course, the election of Barack Obama. All the locals were rooting for him, and there was a huge sense of pride that his heritage is East African. I asked taxi drivers, & other people I met along the way what they thought about the possibility of his winning the election and the feeling all round was that since Obamas' heritage is African that he'll be instrumental is spreading the wealth to Africa. They're also immensely proud. They're even selling Kangas (the wraps that women wear tied around the waist) with Obama's image and along the edges of the Kanga where there is traditionally a proverb it says. 2008. Yes We Did!

I will keep logging on as much as I can with updates and individual Albino stories. In the meantime, here are a couple of photos of the Sun Precautions donations being appreciated, and a couple of the inpatients. For these patients I made an advance for their transportation costs – to go back home when discharged and to return to ORCI for follow up appointments. It's a small start on something that I'm working on a formal structure for a future fund to address transport, basic necessities, and prescriptions. Ibrahim, the person holding the prescription is planning to try to get fare to go to Nairobi (Kenya) to buy the medication because it's cheaper there. It's a simple prescription for tubes of 5FU cream. My Swahili is improving, but, there aren't words in any language for how plain crazy some things are.

I would so much appreciate if you can help with the Auction for funds. Bid on art, donate, or spread the word to friends.

All my best, Rozarii
Asante Sana ( thanks very much).

As a photographer I have the power of imagery to help me reach people. Both, the people in need of help and people who want to help. My idea is to do 2 things. The first is to go to Tanzania to work on a photo project with the Tanzanian albino society (TAS). The second is to do a fund raiser for TAS.

The NY Times article had mentioned the Tanzanian Albino Society, so, contacting them seemed like a good place to start. Researching online didn't yield much information so thanks to Jeffrey Gettleman for responding to my request for help. He gave me contact info for TAS and for Ms. A Kwegyir who is a member of the Tanzanian Parliament (notable that she is the first person with albinism to be elected to this position.) The people I just mentioned are very happy and appreciative for any and all help. So long story short, a couple of months later most of the organization is done and I am about to leave for my trip to Tanzania. (I'll be there from Oct 27-Dec 18). The countdown to departure is on — 2 weeks!! I will keep posting information about the photo project and travel adventures so please keep checking in to this site.

In the meantime, the important thing is that the online auction will run from Nov 16 until Nov 30. Auction items include limited edition photographs from my 1st trip to Tanzania, and handmade art & gifts from Tanzania. Here's your chance to do some early, relaxed and meaningful holiday gift shopping. You'll feel fabulous and be doing more good than you can imagine for another human being.

Thanks for being checked in
Rozarii