Goodluck Mkosah is an internal supervisor and students’ and community counsellor in Tanzania.
After studying for a psychology degree, Goodluck decided to use his skills and qualifications to assist the community he lives in deal with various social, economic and psychological challenges.
His work includes helping people with albinism, the elderly and the disabled. When he set up his office, he observed that these groups of people were vulnerable and struggled to meet their basic needs such as education, health, shelter and clothes.
He visits the rural areas to meet with parents of children with albinism and provides advice and counselling; as parents of children with albinism tend to hide their children, not send them to school as there are different myths around having children with albinism and with that security concerns for children.
The early 2000s saw many children with albinism being killed or having their limbs amputated in witchcraft practices. People with albinism live in constant fear of being killed for their body parts. The fear of becoming victims prevents many children with this condition from going to school.
Goodluck’s biggest concern is that they do not attend school, they will grow up as prejudiced individuals with no prospects and no opportunities to improve their circumstances. He therefore encourages parents to send their children to special schools that specialise in teaching children with disabilities and albinism.
He believes that solving individual, group and communal problems requires a greater contribution by all, especially experts who have the skills to seek alternative solutions to people’s problems. In this case, he continues to use his psychology background and expertise to educate communities and reach out to change perceptions and demystify myths associated with children with albinism.
Since 2013, Goodluck has visited over 44 wards/villages and run seminars aimed at educating and empowering people with albinism, women, and people with disabilities. He believes that positive change starts by taking action and small, consistent actions lead to a revolution. ;,
Goodluck is also planning a programme to influence the youth to stop early marriages and instead to give themselves a chance to mature and discover who they are.
His vision is to create 1 000 other influencers with a strong sense of community development to drive the agenda on changing social perceptions on various issues that affect communities; as part of a plan to ensure that development of societies and communities is sustainable and ongoing.
Goodluck lives by the philosophy that you must never let fear decide your future. Always defeat fear by taking action.
