Five albino kids from Tanzania who lost their limbs when machete-wielding men cut them off in order to sell them as ingredients for witch doctors' potions went to the U.S. in June to receive prosthetics.
They were brought in by a charity called Global Medical Relief Fund, an organization the gives prostheses to children who have lost their limbs while in crisis zones. Elissa Montanti, the organization's founder, wanted to help one albino victim after reading an article about him and decided to bring him to the U.S. along with four other albino victims, the Associated Press reported.
Superstitious belief in Tanzania dictates that body parts of albinos used in certain potions can help obtain wealth and good fortune. Thus, albino kids are highly sought after for witchcraft purposes. Their body parts sell at a high price on the black market.
It is not uncommon for albino kids to be attacked - or sometimes killed - by people who cut off their limbs and other body parts and sell these for witchcraft. Eight albino kids were attacked in Tanzania for this purpose last year alone. Previous victims face the threat of being attacked again, according to the Associated Press.
Baraka Cosmas Lusambo - the boy whose story Montanti read about - was sleeping in his house in March when men suddenly barged in and knocked his mother unconscious. They reportedly pinned him against the ground, hacked off his right hand and left.
A month before this happened, an albino toddler named Yohana Bahati was taken from his home. Police searched for him and found him not far from his home, his arms and limbs cut off. He was dead. His mother had serious machete cuts on her face after trying to fend off the men who took her baby, Discovery News reported.
The Tanzanian government enacted a law earlier this year that banned witch doctors. However, it did not lessen the attacks. Photojournalist Jacquelyn Martin, who has followed the victims' stories, believes nothing much will change until the attackers and the buyers themselves are prosecuted.
"Until prosecution of attackers, and of buyers, really becomes a solid threat, I fear little will change. There is a large financial incentive for these attacks and the market would need to be eliminated to ensure future safety," Martin told Smithsonian.
Limbs can fetch for hundreds of dollars on the black market, and a complete body "set" can sell up to $75,000, according to Martin.
"This in a country where the annual median income is $600 or less. So the question becomes, who is doing the buying?" she said.
As for Lusambo and the four other albino kids, they will stay with the charity until they get their new prosthetic limbs. They will return to Tanzania and live in safe houses run by an organization called Under the Same Sun. They will periodically return to the U.S. to have new prostheses fitted as they grow, according to the Associated Press.
"They're not getting their arm back," Montanti said. "But they are getting something that is going help them lead a productive life and be part of society and not be looked upon as a freak or that they are less than whole."
