Endangered?

Hi everybody, I should have uploaded this post earlier today but I wanted to clear with the Head priest whether it's safe to write about the school and its scholars. I could only do this when I met him today, and he assured me that it's perfectly safe; in fact, I'm hoping to write an article about our outing today in a South African magazine.  

In my previous post, Penny asked about the blind child we're helping here in Mwadui.

Earlier this year, I posted about a five-year-old blind boy we'd heard about living here in town. You can read about this by clicking the link below:

http://memorablemeanders.blogspot.com/2013/04/jesus-said.html

While great progress is being made with teaching Barack to walk and relate to objects like play dough (clay), musical sounds and different textures, Amanda had heard about the School for the Blind nearby.  She took Barack and his mother to visit the school but realized it would not be suitable for the little boy at this stage. For one, it  used to be managed by the Catholic Church which employed teachers. Some time ago, it was taken over by the government and and now is run by mainly carers. Barack's own parents and family members care for him very well, so it's better he remains at home among loved ones and where he is comfortable. Linda, who is charge of helping Barack,  is continuing on a program which Amanda obtained from the Blind Institute in Pretoria, South Africa. 

Another thing Amanda found out at the local school was that it had been taken over by the government to protect  the large majority of the children who are albinos. You can read about the prejudice and horrors these people face, especially in Tanzania, here and here . The school Head calls these children endangered and the government hides them for protection. 

Allegedly when a parent has an albino child, they bring it to the gates of this school and push it inside. They fear for its life (reasons mentioned in links above) and for being ostracized in their community as well. The albino has a very sensitive skin, scalp and also sight impaired in many cases. We've added head scarves to the parcels which we handed out to the children.

So in today's "modern" world, it's not only the fish, birds and four-legged creatures who're endangered, mainly by the actions of man, but vulnerable children and adults who, through no fault of theirs, are not the same as us.

Kudos to the government for stepping in and protecting these people to live as is their right.