Thursday, September 01, 2011



In May a Spanish film maker, Jose Manuel Herraiz, contacted me through this journal. He wanted to know if I knew of Djenneba, a young albino girl whom he met in Djenne about 6 years ago. He made a short film about her:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUQ9sZ5XzyA

which won a price in Spain. Many people wanted to know what happened to Djenneba. Did she become a lawyer? Did she marry and have children? Herraiz wanted to find her if only to share the prize money with her.
Keita and I managed to find her. She is no longer in Djenne, but in Bamako. She is a very nice young lady, modest and well educated, with a very pleasant manner. She has difficulties with her eyes, and the bright sun causes her problems, as often is the case with albinos. She is in touch with Salif Keita, the great Malian musician, an albino himself, who has founded a charity for albinos. This foundation has helped her with a skin operation which she needed. Herraiz is now planning to shoot a sequel to his first film, see above, and he will be back in Mali soon… more about this exciting project later…

Meanwhile there is good news on the cataract donations front. We have had two substantial donations from friends which mean we now have more than one third of the required money!

1 Comments:

Blogger David said...

This makes me both sad and horrified: Albino body parts prized by witch doctors. Stomach-churning.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11614957

9:03 AM  

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