Albinos cry foul

ALBINOS face a lot of discrimination and violence in society because they are not valued and some people think they can be used for rituals which leads to killings, an Albino activist Lephan Madiba has said.
In an interview, Mr Madiba said it was for this reason that he decided to come up with a beauty pageant show aimed at fighting discrimination of albinos.
He said the pageant show planned to feature 20 albino models, 10 young women and ten young men adding that the best eight, four young women and four young men will be given scholarships to advance their education.
Mr Madiba further said the eight would also travel to selected countries such as South Africa, Zimbabwe among others to learn how other albinos were impacting their nations in the world of fashion.
“As a modelling agency, we are currently working on a beauty pageant show strictly for albinos. Our aim is to advocate an end to discrimination against albinos. We want to involve albinos in the Zambian fashion and modelling industry to break the stigma that some, who want to be in the world of fashion, face,”

Mr Madiba added: “Mostly albinos face challenges of social and violent discrimination. When some people see an albino all they think about is ritual killings because there is a belief that their body parts can be sold to make someone rich.
“We just want society to allow albinos live in peace and accept them because they can make a differences as they are capable human beings,” he said.
Mr Madiba said he was working alongside Odini Art Center run by musician Moses Sakala.
He appealed to different organisations to come on board and donate towards the noble event and make it a success.
Mr Madiba urged the public to love and appreciate the albinos because they are humans just like others, adding that the only difference is their skin color.