{"id":6938,"date":"2017-03-27T18:47:28","date_gmt":"2017-03-27T18:47:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adra.org\/?p=6938"},"modified":"2026-04-01T18:16:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T18:16:16","slug":"hunted-to-hopeful-marys-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adra.org\/de\/hunted-to-hopeful-marys-story","title":{"rendered":"Tansania: ADRA arbeitet mit Schulen, Verk\u00e4ufern und Menschen mit Albinismus zusammen, um COVID-19-Infektionen zu verhindern"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n

Mary Meschu is just one of the 170,000 Tanzanian albinos living under the weight of superstition.<\/p>\n

Her pale skin stands in stark contrast to those around her, causing many to believe she, and others like her, are ghosts, a cursed type of people. They call them \u201czeru zeru\u201d, which literally means double zero. Less than nothing<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Ironically, a high price is placed on the heads of those with albinism. Witch-doctors pay more than $50,000 for body parts to use in potions and ceremonies. In a country with an average daily income of $1, it is an attractive bounty.<\/p>\n

Hunters, lured by this bounty, approached Mary\u2019s teacher when she was just 11 years old.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, the teacher refused to sell her and Mary\u2019s friends were quickly rallied and put on high alert.<\/p>\n

At birth, Mary\u2019s father had accused her mother, Happiness, of having an affair.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing of my blood could be like this,\u201d he claimed.<\/p>\n

He fled, leaving Happiness to struggle alone. Mary fought to provide for her family. She sold fish and bananas on the road-side, but without a breadwinner, the family slipped further into poverty.<\/p>\n

Eventually, Happiness remarried and Mary felt safe and secure. But it wouldn\u2019t last long.<\/p>\n

Mary\u2019s stepfather, the only father she had ever known, heard that albinos could bring him success\u2014if he could sleep with an albino he would discover great wealth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard about the rape,\u201d Happiness said. \u201cShe told me the horrible thing my husband had done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ashamed, Mary\u2019s stepfather ran. Months passed and Happiness watched her family slip further into poverty. Desperate for help, and left with little choice, Happiness accepted her husband back.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father attempted to rape me again,\u201d Mary said. \u201cI tried to keep my distance, but he continued to try and rape me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thanks to ADRA\u2019s work with Tanzania\u2019s albino Mary has been provided with a safe place to study, access to vital health services, and the community around her is being taught about the truth of albinism.<\/p>\n

Psalm 82:3-4 calls us to \u201cdefend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked\u201d.<\/p>\n

The 170,000 albinos in Tanzania and the more than 1 million women and children trafficked for sex and sexual exploitation around the world, need us to hear that call.<\/p>\n

For Mary and other albinos in Tanzania, ADRA, in conjunction with the Tanzanian Albino Society, has helped to build safer schools, improve access to health care and give albinos a stronger voice in their community. And, in places like Thailand, ADRA is providing support to girls at risk of being forced into the ever-growing sex trade.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mary Meschu is just one of the 170,000 Tanzanian albinos living under the weight of superstition.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[785,615,284,982],"tags":[690,1086,1159,301],"class_list":["post-6938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa","category-blog","category-health","category-tanzania","tag-protection","tag-pseah-protection-from-sexual-exploitation-abuse-and-harassment","tag-social-behavior-change","tag-social-justice"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adra.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adra.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adra.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adra.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adra.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6938"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/adra.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46848,"href":"https:\/\/adra.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6938\/revisions\/46848"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adra.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adra.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adra.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adra.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}