Dana Ullman

Photographer
 
Living with albinism: Uganda
Location: New York (Currently in Denmark)
Nationality: USA
Biography: Dana Ullman is a New York-based freelance photojournalist and writer whose work focuses on humanizing statistics and social issues through storytelling. Dana's stories and photographs have been published with the New York Times, the... MORE
Editors Only Story
Living with albinism: Uganda
Copyright Dana Ullman 2024
Updated Jan 2017
Location Kabale, Uganda
Topics Abandonment, Abuse, Activism, Birth, Blind, children, color, Documentary, east africa, human rights, Human trafficking, international, Photojournalism, Portraiture, social justice, uganda, underreported, violence, witchcraft, women

While the plight of people born with albinism, especially youth, has received attention in countries such as Tanzania, the discrimination, trafficking of and violence against those with the genetic condition knows no borders. Children with albinism, who are seen more as valuable commodities than human beings, suffer barbaric practices such as bloodletting, dismemberment, abuse, rape, discrimination and death. Often lacking national policies against the practices of witchcraft, the situation is rife with human rights violations that continue without accountability.

In Kabale, a town in Western Uganda, Michael Sabiiti has been rescuing local albino children from witchdoctors and human traffickers. Though many of these children are receiving support for the first time ever in their lives, there are still many challenges to their safety and transition back into the community. The experiences of these youth reveal the cultural stigma that often results in abhorrent abuses and how disability can be a social construct.

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