About Mama Mzungu

Women and Children with Albinism in Uganda (WACWAU) is a registered NGO serving the needs of the most vulnerable in our community. Across Africa, people with Albinism experience human rights violations and abuses. Our economic, political, social and cultural rights are often compromised in devastating ways. Societal ignorance about Albinism has contributed to exclusion, stigmatization and the denial of basic rights such as education and health. Broad ignorance, misbeliefs and superstitions have also endangered our lives. In everyday life, those of us affected by Albinism, particularly women and children, are frequently treated as less than human and are not considered capable of amounting to anything.

Through Mama Mzungu, our social enterprise soap making initiative which was born under the economic empowerment arm of WACWAU, we have so far been able to create full-time employment for twelve women affected by Albinism in Uganda.

Highly determined and with a hunger to show society what we are capable of, we have come together with the aims of cultivating sustainable job creation, economic empowerment, self reliance and changing the image of those affected by Albinism so we can achieve a level of respect and acceptance we feel we deserve.

So why the name Mama Mzungu? Ugandans frequently refer to women as Mama, followed by their children's names. 'Mzungu' refers to a white foreigner and is often used as a slur to insult people living with Albinism. Calling the brand Mama Mzungu diminishes the power of the insult and allows us to redefine it with pride. Meet our amazing team and watch our video below!