Individuals with albinism are similar to any other person, with similar life expectancy and capacity to arrive at their objectives. Watching Onome Okagbare-Majoro and Ameen Olatunji Yusuf otherwise called Teejay Ameen, two people living with albinism as they get ready for their shoot with The Guardian Life, it is not difficult to tell that they are not the same as every other person as society likes to think. 

Obscure to many is the way that creatures and even plants can have albinism. Albinism is a hereditary condition where individuals are brought into the world without the standard shade (shading) in their bodies. Their bodies can't make an ordinary measure of melanin, the compound that is answerable for eye, skin, and hair tone. So the vast majority with albinism have extremely fair skin, hair, and eyes. 

On June 13 of consistently, the world imprints International Albinism Awareness Day. The current year's subject is "Strength Beyond All Odds," and the pair of Onome and Teejay are two individuals who have ascended past the disgrace of albinism. 

Onome Okagbare-Majoro | Image:: Idris Dawodu/Guardian Life 

Life As An Albino 

Onome is an alum of Mass Communication and has a Masters Degree in Communication, Media Practice, and Public Relations. She is the prime supporter of the Onome Akinolu Majaro Foundation (OAM Foundation), which is established on the conviction that edification added with a little demonstration of affection and generosity can change how individuals living with albinism are dealt with. On his part, Teejay is an alum of Theater Arts and is a transmission writer with barely five years as an amusement columnist, occasion host, and brand influencer. 

Onome realized she was distinctive as ahead of schedule as her elementary school days when she understood she was the "most attractive of all" among her kin and cohorts in school. At the point when she asked her mother for what valid reason she was unique, the reaction was that she is "made in the picture of God." As she developed more seasoned, her mother additionally disclosed to her what it intended to be an individual living with albinism. Because of her condition, she was shielded from exercises that would open her to the cruel beams of the sun. Burn from the sun is a repetitive ailment for PWA. 

The opposite was the situation for Teejay who never felt he was unique. 

Ameen Olatunji Yusuf | Image:: Idris Dawodu/Guardian Life 

His folks dealt with him as they did his kin, and he did everything different youngsters did. In any event, when he headed out to life experience school and was absolved from specific exercises, he contended energetically to be incorporated. He addressed the costs in rankles, burns from the sun, and tingling, however, he took everything in great step. Nonetheless, he particularly has needed to work more enthusiastically to demonstrate that he is similar to every other person. 

Teejay reviews his National Youth Service (NYSC) when he needed to serve in Kano and the camp commandant recommended he get back to Lagos since "you can't make due here." 

"I did the three weeks there, I even facilitated every one of the occasions at NYSC camp. I had consumed however I wore it with satisfaction yet I simply needed to show that I am not debilitated. Indeed, I am exceptional yet everybody was brought into the world with a characteristic and I can do what everybody is doing." 

One adds that since she is a pale-skinned person, individuals expect less of her however she has had the option to demonstrate consistently that being a pale-skinned person isn't inseparable from being imbecilic. 

Onome Okagbare-Majoro and Ameen Olatunji Yusuf | Image:: Idris Dawodu/Guardian Life 

Dread, Myths, and Discrimination 

Onome's remark about being wrongly profiled as a pale-skinned person outfitted the discussion to the legends encompassing pale-skinned people. 

For Onome, she has needed to address the distortion that pale-skinned people can't eat salt or pepper. The Yorubas say, "afin o family je iyo," which implies pale-skinned people don't eat salt. 

The confusion is that the utilization of salt causes the consumes and rankles pale-skinned people have on their skin. Salt is a fundamental dietary necessity, and individuals with albinism like every other person need to have salt in their eating regimen to keep away from an iodine insufficiency that can cause goiter or hyponatremia, a condition described by low degrees of sodium in the blood. 

Strangely, the expression "Sun Not Salt" is related to the OAM Foundation as a mantra to illuminate people in general about the misinterpretation that salt is terrible for pale-skinned people. 

The misguided judgments about pale-skinned people have likewise positioned their lives in peril in various pieces of Africa, particularly East Africa and surprisingly in West Africa. There are the individuals who incorrectly accept pale-skinned people have profound importance (riches, political achievement, and best of luck). They accept pale-skinned person body parts are useful for ceremonies and this legend has prompted far and wide killings of pale-skinned people for body parts. This dark enchantment conviction has prompted blasting interest for pale-skinned person appendages and organs, with a few killings of individuals living with albinism announced in nations like Tanzania, Malawi, Burundi, among others. 

Come and Teejay have additionally had their decent amounts of this off-base idea about individuals with albinism, particularly with regards to the fantasy around a pale-skinned person's hair. 

"I have heard that my hair can be utilized to bring in cash and I bother them about this. I go to an arbitrary hairdresser and advise them, if you like to pack my hair, you are all alone. I'm certain they have stuffed my hair previously. I ordinarily advise them, the day they bring in cash from it, let me know so I can share out of it, at any rate, I added to it. Yet, it isn't right to imagine that if you take a pale-skinned person's body part, it will bring you the best of luck or riches," Teejay amusingly shares. 

Ameen Olatunji Yusuf | Image:: Idris Dawodu/Guardian Life 

There is additionally the biased conviction that pale-skinned people are results of disloyalty particularly when the kid is from two darker looking guardians. The mother gets the fault as she is blamed for having had sexual relations with another man or with white men. A few others proliferate, similar to pale-skinned people not finding in the early evening, pale-skinned people being divine beings, pale-skinned people not passing on yet vanishing among a few others. 

Strength Beyond All Odds 

With the few components lying against them, Onome and Teejay have demonstrated themselves to be as similarly if worse than their friends in their picked vocations. They concede that they have needed to foster tough qualities over the years to withstand the affronts, segregation, and what have you that they have needed to go through as a result of albinism. 

Teejay, who accepts he has a solid character, shares that he is more worried about how pale-skinned people see themselves versus what the world considers them. 

"Shame is abstract. I have learned in life that you show individuals how to treat you, so when I stroll into a room and individuals anticipate that I should be modest or calm, they are constantly astonished when I open my mouth and talk. I'm not worried about somebody who is attempting to cut down a pale-skinned person, yet how that pale-skinned person sees himself. Does he/she have self-esteem, certainty, and the right outlook about existence?" 

While lecturing self-esteem and certainty all sounds simple, Onome concedes pale-skinned people such as herself and Teejay come from a position of the advantage of individuals who are taught and scholarly. She describes that she figured out how to claim the "hit single" about pale-skinned people the mainstream 'oyinbo pepper, shuku pepper' – that individuals sing when they interact with pale-skinned people. Her folks instructed her to take the sting, joke, and maltreatment from the tune by claiming it, so when different kids sang it, she chimed in with them and moved. Notwithstanding, she thinks that the fact of the matter is harsher and grimmer for the individuals who don't have a solid emotionally supportive network. 

"There are days when individuals living with albinism will stroll on the roads just to return home and cry in light of the segregation and trashing. (This is because) Someone someplace has utilized disparaging words and we are altogether people. Despite the toughness and dividers, we set up, there are days you separate. There are those of us who came from stunning and adoring families yet there are PWAs whose guardians will not, in any event, bring them out. They are covered up in the shadows, they are not instructed and learned. This is the truth of numerous pale-skinned people." 

She expounds further on how hard it isn't to explore the cloudy waters of the dating pool. Discovering love is hard enough for the darker-looking individual, yet the chances are stacked much higher for a pale-skinned person. To discover love is a massive assignment and when a pale-skinned person discovers it, he/she needs to manage families and companions of their accomplices. 

Families regularly reject union with pale-skinned people out of dread of the introduction of another pale-skinned person kid, mean and harmful remarks can cut down confidence, among numerous different components. 

Onome Okagbare-Majoro | Image:: Idris Dawodu/Guardian Life 

"Envision having an accomplice who is embarrassed about you or would not acquaint you with their companions or family due to what they will say or their acknowledgment. The family can deny marriage in any event, when you discover somebody that loves you. It is imperative to discover somebody who picks you as you have picked them." 

One is hitched to her heart breaker, Lolu, with whom she shares a child while Teejay who is single, says he has guidelines so high that he understands what he needs and never agrees to less because he has been shown veritable love by his family. To construct this self-esteem and certainty among pale-skinned people, Teejay and Onome ask guardians to adore their pale-skinned person kids because the affection begins from home. 

The two of them concur, 

"If the establishment is defective, it will be difficult for that PWA to explore the segregation from society. Guardians are the principal resource and you need to show them that affection because the roads are wild." 

What Needs To Be Done 

Individuals with albinism frequently experience difficulty with their visual perception. They may wear glasses or contact focal points to help right issues like partial blindness, farsightedness, or astigmatism. Others may require an eye for a medical procedure. Individuals with fair complexion are additionally especially in danger of skin malignancy. So it is significant for individuals with albinism to utilize sunscreen

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