The suspected muti murder of a young woman with albinism has sparked a national campaign by the South African Council of Churches to help prevent attacks on people like her. Thandazile "Nanana" Msweli's gruesome killing - she was mutilated and buried in a shallow grave more than a month ago - ripped through her quiet community of eSicabazini near Manguzi in northern KwaZulu-Natal.The 21-year-old had a difficult life in a community where ignorance and superstition about people with albinism abound.There is a common belief that the body parts of people with albinism bring luck and that they don't die but disappear. Those superstitions cost Msweli her life in August. She was in Grade 3 because she had developmental and learning difficulties.The council said this week that the key to tackling this superstition was for churches to educate their congregants about the condition.story_article_left1Malusi Mpumlwana, the council's general secretary, said the public had to be taught there was no supernatural power in a lack of pigmentation.The council has made a call to its churches to use Msweli's case to "create greater awareness and a positive disposition towards people with albinism".It has implored churches that baptise babies with albinism to make "a fuss over them to be even more affirming".Mpumlwana said churches had a role to play in supporting families anxious about the safety of their children with albinism."The council has also made a call for the issue of albinism to be dealt with in school curriculums. Children must be educated that the condition occurs in all mammals, including humans, to abolish any notion that supernatural properties go with this condition."story_article_right2Nomasonto Mazibuko, executive director of the Albinism Society of South Africa, lauded the council's campaign."The reason why people living with albinism are vilified in their communities is because of ignorance and to a certain degree a lack of understanding."Mazibuko said cases of people living with albinism being attacked or killed often went unreported, which had resulted in a lack of statistics.Elsewhere on the continent, albinism has evoked similarly horrific consequences, particularly in Tanzania and Burundi. There, people with albinism are also killed for muti in the belief that their body parts carry good luck and fortune.According to a report this year by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, a complete set of albino body parts - including all four limbs, genitals, ears, tongue and nose - can fetch up to $75000 (about R1-million).sub_head_start Living in the shadow of death with albinism sub_head_endThandeka Msweli lives in the shadow of death because her skin lacks colour.But if she could, the elder sister of Thandazile Msweli, the northern KwaZulu-Natal woman with albinism who was killed in a muti-related murder in August, would pursue a career in medicine to assist people with the genetic disorder."I lost my sister in a tragic manner and I always fear for my life. I miss her a lot. I hardly go out alone or at night because I don't know who might be following me," she said.The outspoken Thandeka said she had accepted her condition and loved being herself.story_article_left3"Can I change it? No."Can I improve it? Yes, by keeping myself beautiful and taking care of my skin because I know it is sun-sensitive," she said.The 23-year-old has completed matric but cannot afford to study further.When she was old enough to understand albinism, she felt ashamed, she said. "When I was a teenager I used to hide when there were visitors at home, and at school I would isolate myself."It was her parents who helped Thandeka gain self-esteem and accept herself."I'm more comfortable and I have accepted my difference. My parents helped a lot because they told me and Nanana [her late sister Thandazile] that we were beautiful," she said."I wish people can accept us, and not believe unfounded suspicions and superstitions about us. One is that we do not die but disappear," she said.govendersu@sundaytimes.co.za..