Four Tanzanian Albino Children Victims Reaches United States To Seek Medical Treatment

Four albino children of Tanzania national arrives in the United States Saturday after losing limbs in brutal superstition-driven attacks.

Founder of New York-based Global Medical Relief Fund (GMRF), Elissa Montanti, waited for them at the John F. Kennedy International Airport to help them with medical treatment.

GMRF hosts children who are injured in disaster or conflict from any corner of the world. In past two decades the organization has hosted over 200 children with required medical treatment help.

Montanti said, “We’ve helped children who have stepped on landmines, children who have kicked a can and it exploded, a tsunami, typhoons, but this is so deliberate.”

Albinism children live in danger and fear in Tanzania and several other African countries as their body parts are highly valued in witchcraft.

The two Tanzanian children are making a return trip to US. They had prosthetics about two years ago with the help of GMRF.

One of the children, 15-year-old Emmanuel Rutema, recalled the incident saying the attackers chopped off one arm of his and the fingers of other arm. They even tried to pull out his teeth and tongue.

Rutema added, “I’ve come back to get a new arm.”

Currently the children attend boarding school in Tanzania and live in so-called safe houses. They avoid going out in public as they are highly traumatized and are still in fear.