Many in the country are struggling to find work because of the ongoing pandemic, and when they can find work, a nationwide transport ban due to COVID-19 made it even more it difficult for those with albinism—a genetic condition where the body doesn’t produce melanin, a pigment found in skin, eyes and hair—to get the sun protection factor 50-plus sunscreen they need.
Activist Pat Robert Larubi, who advocates for those with albinism and disabilities, has traveled more then 800 kilometers, nearly 500 miles, on a motorbike across Uganda to provide three units each of sunscreen to hundreds of people with albinism.
Many people with albinism in Uganda labor outdoors, under the hot sub-Saharan Africa sun.
“Most of the people with albinism generally come from poor backgrounds,” said Larubi, who wants to see public officials make sunscreen an essential and accessible product.
But those problems caused by the ongoing pandemic form just the tip of the iceberg for people with albinism in the country, where there is a stigma against those with the condition.
