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It was from neighbours that Scola Joseph first heard of two strange men in the village asking after her children. She knew immediately the moment she dreaded had come.

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Packing small bags for Elijah, 3, and Christine, 5, she led them away from their home and towards the nearest town, to a government camp where hundreds others like them were living under protection. It was the only way to keep them alive.

Buhangija is one of nine such centres in Tanzania. This is where the country’s endangered class of albino children are moved in an attempt to keep them safe from witch doctors, who claim their body parts, ground up and put in charms, can bring wealth and fortune.

Separated from their families and forced to largely stay indoors because of the effects on their skin of the east African sun, they sleep three or four to a bed. They survive on basic food rationed by their head teacher because of erratic government funding.

“These children are living like refugees and it’s shameful,” said Peter Ajali, the headteacher. “I try to take the part of the parents and love them and keep them safe but it’s not humanitarian for them to live like this.”

Albinism, caused by a lack of pigmentation in their skin, hair and eyes, affects about one in 20,000 people worldwide, but is for unknown reasons more common in sub-Saharan Africa and Tanzania particularly, where it claims one in 1,400.