Since 2005 the Stichting Afrikaanse Albinos has been sending sun block 3 times a year for the albinos in Malawi. By now the foundation is helping more than 800 albinos.

Malawi is the country where it all started. A new world opened up for Joyce Mussa, a nurse who is also an albino, when two visiting students gave her some sun block in 2002. Those students were  Nienke Sonneveld (now chairman of the Stichting Afrikaanse Albinos) and Kirsten de Boer  Joyce’s skin hardly got burnt at all, became much less painful and showed clear visible improvement. It was through this albino lady that the concept to found the Stichting Afrikaanse Albinos came about.

Distribution and instruction
Transport to Malawi is organised through the Harrie van den Brekel stichting in Hoensbroek (linkje naarr hun website). This foundation sends a container of goods for schools and health care to Malawi 2 – 3 times a year. Our boxes of sun block can travel with this container shipment. In Malawi the foundation has 3 contacts who can take care of the local distribution: nurse Joyce Mussa in Mangochi and the clinical officers (ward doctors) Levie Mwale (Blantyre) and Jimmy Lilongwe. Since 2006 distribution and instruction has taken place out of these two hospitals. The two clinical officers have both received special training in dermatology and are able to treat skin problems and cancers at the clinics where they work. As a public health nurse and from personal experience Joyce Mussa (an albino herself) is an instruction expert. When necessary she refers the albinos that she treats to the skin clinics.

Local production
As well as providing sun block from the Netherlands the foundation also wants to promote local production of sun block in African countries. The first local production project started in Malawi in 2008. In the Queen Elisabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre a ´skin clinic´ was installed in a laboratory where the production is carried out quite independently. Albinos themselves are taking care of the production of their own sun block and are distributing it to other albinos in the area. Some of the raw materials are still being provided by the foundation but it is the intention that in the future they will be able to carry out everything themselves.