News Article about the Albino School Project in Kenya

 

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A Global Village Saves Albino Kids From Slaughter

By Jo Piazza | Monday, October 11, 2010 5:30 AM ET

An African principal, a Dutch fundraiser and a Mormon housewife are building a sanctuary for some of Kenya's most vulnerable citizens.

It was during her first volun-tourism trip with the group Koins for Kenya that Jami Quesenberry, 47, from Salem, Utah, met the African woman Mwanahamisi and her daughter (right) at a dispensary in Lutsangani, Kenya, a small village about 50 miles outside of the port city Mombasa in 2009.
Mwanahamisi's husband had divorced her for giving birth to albino children, and upon looking closer at the small girl, Jami noticed the child's skin was indeed white and covered in boils and scars from sun exposure.
The despair in Mwanahamisi's eyes said it all — and it haunted Jami all year.
Little did Jami know, the sun wasn't the child's only danger.  Although Mwanahamisi's husband had divorced her for having two albino children, in September of this year he learned that albinos could be sold for their skin. One trip across the border to Dar es salaam, Tanzania, and he could get himself 18 million Kenyan shilling. He came hunting for the children with a machete.
We wrote about the horrors inflicted on African albinos here back in June. We also told you about the start of Mwanahamisi's story. We promise that things only get better from here.

Jami Q. with Hussein Lumbambo and the headmistress of the Kinandaongo School in Kenya

 Shortly after Jami's first visit, a local Kenyan man name Hussein Lumbambo had a dream to open a school not far from Lutsangani in the town of Kinandaongo, where the approximately 100 children with albinism in the area can live and be educated free from fear and danger.
But without a car or modern forms of communication, Mwanahamisi never knew this luxury even existed. On her second visit in 2010, Jami met Hussein in a chance encounter.
When Mwanahamisi learned her ex-husband was searching for her children she hid in the Koins for Kenya community center in a village close to her town. Jami was contacted by the Koins executive director Anthony Yama. She in turn reached out to Hussein.
He responded to her email post-haste and rushed to find Mwanahamisi and her children. Talk about the benefits of six degrees of separation.
"I was out my senses when I received your email and I had no business staying in the office when my albino children were in danger I had to use all my powers and all means available ... the two children are now safe, sound and comfortably seated in class with the others in class. I had to respond to your call remembering all what you are doing to make the albino children have a bright future," Hussein wrote to Jami shortly after rescuing Mwanahamisi and her children.

An albino boy at Kinandaongo School with new hat

 Hussein's school has truly been a global project. A Dutch woman named Marjon Bogaard, visited the school in April and forever changed it.
"Through Hussein we met the albino children and we started to collect money for them. In April we started to built new toilets and water tank for the whole community of Kibandaongo and built a dormitory for the albino children and a small water tank," Bogaard told Tonic over email from Holland.
The dormitories are necessary for the albino children who must be protected from human predators with high walls, provided the funding to build them.
See, we promised a happy ending. So what is next? At this time, there are no funds to purchase beds and bedding for the 48 students who will attend. The students also need protective uniforms, hats, shoes and sunscreen.
There is also the issue of food and water. In schools in rural Kenya, students bring corn from home and a stick of wood for the fire that will cook their corn. This is lunch. Students also need to bring water from home, collected by their mothers daily from filthy rivers and dams near their villages.
Because these students will be too far from home for their families to help them with food and water, the school will need a cistern to collect rainwater from the school's roof. This water will be used for drinking and cooking. The students will need monetary assistance to help buy corn and wood for their meals.

An albino student at the Kinandaongo School

This past weekend Jami, her husband and their eight children cleaned out their closets and hosted a garage sale to raise money for beds. All of her money is being sent through Koins for Kenya to ensure that it reaches Hussein and is used to construct beds and provide food.
"As I walked through Hussein's school in July, I immediately thought of Mwanahamisi and the despair I had seen in her eyes.  It had haunted me all year.  Now I saw there was hope for her children.  I knew that I needed to do everything possible to complete the school and make this opportunity available to her family and to others like her," Jami told Tonic.
"We are not short on stuff. We are a country of stuff. Everyone has stuff. That's how I came up with the idea for a garage sale. It gives everyone a way to help, whether big or small. I started sending out e-mails and Facebook posts and have had such an overwhelming response. I hope that Mwanahamisi can know that she is not alone, that she is not friendless. My dream is to go back to her village some day and see that look of despair gone and replaced with a smile."
Want to join this global village? To do that, please go to www.koinsforkenya.org. Click on the "Donate Now" block. There will be a pull-down menu on the donation form under the title "Donation Destination". Submit your donation under the "Albino School Project".  Koins has zero overhead costs. All money goes 100% towards these projects. And your donations are tax deductible.

The new school year starts in January. Let's give these children a future filled with knowledge instead of fear.

Photos by Ingrid Van Leeuwen