Story By: Michael Leidig, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
An African mum ostracised after giving birth to an albino baby and dumped by her partner has been flooded with offers of help after sharing a picture of the little girl wearing a plastic bag as a nappy.
Zandile Dladla is the mother of three children and was dumped after her latest baby was born albino.
Albinism is viewed with suspicion in many parts of Africa, with people with the condition subject to persecution including murder for their body parts which are supposed to possess magical powers.
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The desperate mum said that she was no longer able to feed her children in an appeal for donations of porridge on a Facebook page for people living in the Randburg district of Johannesburg in South Africa.
She said: “Hello good people please I really need your help please. I really don’t know what to do the father of my children left me cz I gave birth to an albino child and I have three children 6, 4 and three months old baby girl she’s an albino.
“We out of food, she’s out of pampers, porridge and milk I don’t even know what to do she’s crying and I’m crying too coz I’m hopeless.
“Please if anyone would like to donate baby milk, pampers, or porridge God bless you. Am covering her with old clothes and plastic please help.”
She shared an image of the crying baby girl on Twitter and Facebook, which attracted widespread criticism of the dad and offers of assistance for the struggling mum.
One local businessmen, Given Muhlarhi who has been helping other poor families with food parcels, then stepped in to say that he had been unable to sleep after seeing the picture of the mother and child and went to the local supermarket to buy them nappies and porridge.
He said the pictures kept him awake all night, because he was not sure if it was a scam or genuine, but after finally managing to reach the mother he had managed to visit her, and been shocked at the enormous poverty the family were living in.
He said he had held the child, and was angry with the father for dumping his family although in the current climate he agreed it was very difficult for everybody to manage.
He added that he asked himself: “What if this guy worked at a restaurant or in the construction industry. We are blaming him but we don’t know, we have not worn his shoes
“Women are very strong, and God has made women to be able to take the pressure no matter how much it is. They take it but most men don’t have that. When I put myself into his shoes, trying to understand why he ran away, I realized he could listen to this baby crying and there are no nappies or food, yet he is the provider. He came up with the albino excuse so that he could get out of the situation.”
The mum later thanked the organiser of the Facebook group that had allowed her to make the appeal on their page.
She said: “I would like to thank Landy Yeatman for posting in the group when I was in need of help and I would like to thank every one who helped me in this difficult time. Some of the people were accusing me, saying I am a scammer. Some I had to send baby birth certificate for proof and some didn’t give up, they helped me, thank you everyone. God bless you, God really please bless all of you, thank you so much for the driver, you came to drop things for me, thank you for the donations. God bless you all I love you all.”
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