FDH Praises President Samia For Efforts To Improve Welfare Of Special Needs Community In Tanzania -

By Senior Reporter VALENTINE OFORO

THE Foundation For Disabilities Hope (FDH) has expressed to have been impressed with the efforts being driven by president Samia Suluhu Hassan to improve the welfare of the Tanzanians with different forms of disabilities across the country.

Speaking at the ongoing Geita International Mining Technology Expo, Mr Maiko Salali, the Director of Foundation for Disability Hope (FDH) said President Samia has worked tireless to make Tanzania a better sky for disabled to survive since when ascended to power.

“Formerly, for instance,the albino community in Tanzania used to face a number of serious challenges, including poor aces to health services, chiefly the sunscreen oil, but also, poor access to participate and benefiting from diverse economic opportunities that have been cropping-up,” he said.

He observed, most of the households with children/ people with albinism in the country used to live in abject poverty to the tune of not having financial muscle to purchase sunscreen lotions, as well as the other needed facilities to protect them from sun rays, saying the government was working to solve the challenge.

“Currently, through the State Mining Corporation (STAMICO)’s Rafiki Briquettes Project, most of the people with albinism have succeeded in employing themselves by becoming the agent for the marketing of the environment –friendly charcoal,” Mr Salali said.

Together with that, he said various efforts on environmental conservation being implemented across the country by the government in sync with the private sector have helped to protect the albinos in the country from contacting skin cancer.

“Relevant research established that skin cancer limits persons with albinism to a life expectancy of less than forty (40) years, especially in Africa, whereby in Tanzania only 2 percent of persons with albinism survive skin cancer to reach the age of 40,” he detailed.

He praises the decision announced by the government to set up a special clinic for meting out key medical services towards the albinism in all regions across the country, saying the plan will place them in a comfortable place to accessing better health services.

Salali spoke over the important for the government to increase production and availability of the sunscreen lotion, added: “It is very disconcerting that the Kilimanjaro Christians Medical Center (KCMC), through its Kilimanjaro Sunscreen Production Unit (KSPU) has reduced production of the sunscreen lotions,”

The KSPU, is the only facility in the country which produces and freely distributes locally-made sunscreens, dubbed, ‘Kilisun’ that are specifically designed for the people with albinism across Tanzania.

Records show that sunscreen provision is alarmingly poor across Africa, as the lotions are not widely available, and are usually donated from abroad.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), albinism is a genetically inherited disorder resulting from lack of pigmentation (melanin) in the hair, skin and eyes, causing vulnerability to the sun and bright light.