The Office of the Ombudsman and UNESCO have launched a report on albinism in Namibia. The research, launched at Ongwediva, looks at the challenges facing communities and how these can be addressed.
The report, among others, recommends access to health services and job opportunities with favourable working conditions for people with albinism.
Ombudsman, Basilius Dykugha, says the media should play an integral role in promoting successes being made by people with albinism to encourage others to succeed and live limitless lives.
Dykugha says the country has made significant strides in ensuring that the community is safe, unlike in other African countries where they are hunted down for ritual killings and other forms of torture like the mutilation of their body parts.
He says, however, people with albinism in Namibia face emotional abuse, especially in the way they are referred to by society, which shuns them from the rest of society.
He urged parents of children with albinism to integrate them into society.
"The name calling in different vernaculars, in Rukwangali, Oshiwambo, Otjiherero, those names, in my opinion, and theirs, is really derogative and dehumanizing, so we have to resist those behaviours."
The President of the Namibia Albino Association heaped praise upon the government for giving them disability status, saying that it has enabled them to purchase some of their basic necessities.
Joseph Ndinomupya, however, cited that integration into society remains a pipe dream for them as they are excluded from the highest decision-making bodies.
"As we also know that people with albinism suffer and our forefathers passed on because of skin cancer. Therefore, we are now happy because we have the platform to deliver our message and to deliver our complaints. Previously, we were not allowed to join the force, but we are now there. Apparently, because of our skin colour, we could not do it. But when they leave us at home, they say let's fetch water and look after the cattle together, but when it comes to bringing bread to the table, apparently we cannot do it. We achieve that through government and through society."