Friday’s 20/20 on ABC featured an eye-opening and powerful special on albinism. The program explored what it’s like growing up with albinism in the US. Here’s a clip:

The special also exposed the horrible epidemic of people with albinism being murdered in Tanzania. Since 2007, 54 Tanzanian albinos, including children, have been murdered by gangs of men who hack off arms, legs or genitals (and those are just the ones that are reported). These body parts are used in potions made by witch doctors because its believed by some that the limbs of albinos have special powers that create wealth. Tanzania has one of the largest populations of albinos in the world, an estimated 170,000.

I was disgusted when I heard about albinos being hunted down in Tanzania. I wanted to post a clip on the Tanzania story, but I was unable to embed them on the blog. Although difficult to watch, I highly suggest you see this clip and this clip. The part that affected me most was a segment (which is no where to be found online) when an adorable Tanzanian boy with albinism performed a rap song for the ABC News reporters in which he asked “why don’t we deserve the right to life”? Heartbreaking, absolutely heartbreaking.

The Tanzanian government has begun to take steps to protect children with albinism from the killings, but they claim resources have made the task difficult. Click here to learn what you can do to help.

And I also have to give a shout out (whoa, I don’t think I’ve ever used the term “shout out”) to my pal Victor Varnado who is a fantastic comedian and actor with Albinism who was also featured on the 20/20 special. Here’s a clip from an earlier interview he did for ABC: