(ERGO) – Relaxed and confident after a more than a year in a secure job, Elmi Bile Mohamed can comfortably say that life is good and he is looking forward to a healthy, happy future for himself and his family.
Working with an international organisation as a community mobiliser in Mogadishu, Elmi is currently raising awareness over the very stigma and discrimination that made his own life so miserable in the recent past.
Moreover, he is also able to provide for his family and to stand tall in public.
“This job has improved my situation. There is a visible difference between now and then. I am someone who can support my family, especially my father and mother. I was living with a Somali family, but today I have rented my own place, and sending money to my wife. I can take of my needs now,” he proudly.
In an interview with Radio Ergo, 26-year-old Elmi said his salary of $600 a month enables him to rent a house for $80 and send $200 to his parents and siblings in Hiran region so they don’t have to worry about food, house rent, and healthcare.
He has been buying the sunscreen lotion he needs to protect his skin from the sun’s harmful rays and sending these vital products to his three younger albino siblings as well.
In the past, he used to send the little money he made from begging to his wife in Beledweyne. Now with his stable income, he plans to bring her to Mogadishu.
“Before I got this job there were many things that I needed but couldn’t afford, like the sunscreen. I buy them and use them because my skin can’t withstand the sun. I wasn’t able to go out during the day, but now I use these products and go to work,” he said.
Elmi has enrolled in an online English course that costs him $15 and takes classes after work as he is ambitious about furthering his education.
“I couldn’t afford to pay for my studies previously. I hope to start other courses after I’m done with the English, since the language is important. I hope to continue working and reach university level education,” he said.
When Radio Ergo shared Elmi’s story on 31 May 2023, he was in despair after applying for numerous jobs and being constantly rejected. He concluded that he would never find employment in Somalia.
However, the report led to Elmi being offered a job at the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
Having seen him working in this role, Elmi said he has noticed that many people have changed their attitude towards him.
“The perception of the people has changed after they saw me working. Previously when they saw me without a job, they thought I was sick and couldn’t work. But now they say, this man is like other people, he is working, let him be,” he told Radio Ergo.
Elmi noted that people born with albinism are just as able as anyone else in all aspects of work and education. However, he expressed concern about the insults hurled by other students and the blatant discrimination that meets albinos in most classrooms and educational institutions in Somalia.
Elmi moved to Mogadishu in 2018, leaving his parents, three albino siblings and his wife in Beletweyne, where he couldn’t make ends meet.
Although he can afford to pay for his siblings’ school fees now, he sees that they have their work cut out in substantial awareness raising, as his brothers and sister are not well received at school or by the general public and are mostly confined to their home for their physical and mental safety and wellbeing.
He said those living with albinism need to be self-confident and even create their own businesses in an effort to eliminate discrimination.
“I am urging people like me to become confident. The people obsessed by our looks should know that we have been created by God just as they were. The only difference is the skin colour, but we are all healthy. They need to work just like other people, and if they can’t immediately find work they should stay patient and hopeful,” he urged.
