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On this website:
PWA refers to Person(s) With Albinism.
UTSS refers to Under The Same Sun.
Brief Overviews of Under The Same Sun: UTSS in 1 page - CLICK HERE. UTSS in 50 words - CLICK HERE.
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Who we are
Under The Same Sun (UTSS) Fund exists to promote, via advocacy and education, the wellbeing of persons often marginalized and misunderstood. Specifically, we focus on those who are disadvantaged by disability and/or poverty. At UTSS, we are driven by the belief that all persons have intrinsic value as each is created in God’s Image. Accordingly, we also believe that all persons are worthy of love, respect and, above all, dignity. The UTSS Fund will support causes globally that meet these objectives and are approved by the Board of Directors. Currently, all UTSS efforts are focused on the crisis of persons with albinism in Tanzania.
Our Projects
In our Tanzanian office, UTSS currently employs 12 staff plus 2 interns, 10 of whom are persons with albinism, and all of whom are Tanzanian citizens. This amazing team makes up 4 well staffed departments to help achieve its goals. The departments are:
- Education Scholarship Fund (ESF): offers education grants to keen and dedicated students with albinism demonstrating a need for financial or other schooling assistance.
- Advocacy and Public Awareness (APA): deals with public education on albinism, disseminates information on health, offering truths about albinism to diffuse existing myths that often lead to discrimination, stigma and even justify the macabre killings of PWA.
- Health, Education and Emergency (HEE): ensures that PWA who are accepted by the education scholarship fund (ESF) are provided with health education and materials such as low vision aids, sun screen and protective gear to minimize and prevent skin cancer. When our ESF students are faced with life threatening medical challenges, HEE will respond to these emergencies and do whatever is deemed necessary to ensure the wellbeing of the student.
- Media and International Affairs Departments (MIAD): uses media to educate and advocate both nationally and internationally, by collecting and reporting data on the plight of PWA. It also informs and educates the public on human rights violations and respect, reports about the atrocities against PWA, conducts research on the albinism community and assists domestic as well as international media organizations.
Friends of UTSS
Express Lens Lab
UTSS is eternally grateful to Brian Goldstone and his company, Express Lens Lab, for the generous supply of optical lenses to meet the low vision needs of persons with albinism in Tanzania. This will profoundly change the educational experience of the students with albinism in our Education Scholarship Fund program. As education changes their lives, the discriminatory attitudes of their fellow countrymen will be challenged, as will the role of persons with albinism in Tanzanian culture.
FacetAdvisors
LUSH
Dr Rebecca Kammer
UTSS cannot put into words our gratitude for the gift that Dr Kammer (Becky) has given to people with albinism in Tanzania. She has tirelessly offered Low Vision Clinics, met with every student in our Education Scholarship Fund program and suited them all with glasses and other low vision devices. This will profoundly change their educational experience, their lives and ultimately the discriminatory attitudes against albinism in Tanzanian culture.
Mr. REGINALD MENGI & IPP MEDIA
UTSS first encountered Reginald Mengi in his Dar es Salaam office on our very first trip to Tanzania in October of 2008. We have met numerous times since, and he has expressed nothing but solidarity and partnership in this vital cause that haunts his homeland. His alliance is sacred, as are his initiatives to join his fellow citizens with albinism. Thank you Reginald, for showing your love for people with albinism by airing our documentary throughout the nation on your television stations; for the ongoing newspaper and TV media coverage which keeps awareness of this issue alive in your homeland; for advertising a 6 month, education & advocacy film distribution campaign; for providing Kilimanjaro water to the crowds gathered at all the local film screening events, and above all for your enduring display of friendship to this cause and to UTSS.
