comm-UNITY! | Season 14 | Episode 8 | Acceptance Is Generosity

At the 2025 Gathering of Givers, we sat down with Brenda Boonabaana, board member of Albinism Umbrella Uganda, whose journey embodies this year’s theme, Our Generous Spirit. Born with albinism in a community that didn’t fully understand it, Brenda’s earliest gift was the unconditional acceptance of her grandfather, who called her a blessing when others were shocked. From there, her life has been a tapestry of kindness, strangers offering rides to school, sponsors funding her education from primary through university, and mentors guiding her path.

Yet alongside generosity, Brenda has faced harsh discrimination, from exclusion in classrooms to deeply harmful myths that put lives at risk. She painted a vivid picture of the challenges persons with albinism endure: social isolation, barriers to education and employment, limited access to healthcare like sunscreen, and dangerous misconceptions.

Her call to action was clear and urgent: Acceptance is an act of generosity. “The moment a person with albinism is accepted in the community, everything else keeps flowing,” she said. For Brenda, acceptance is not passive tolerance but active inclusion in schools, workplaces, relationships, and every sphere of life.

Her dream is simple yet transformative: to see persons with albinism treated just like any other person, judged not by skin color but by character, capability, and humanity. In her words, “We are all Africans. We eat the same food. We can do anything any other person can do. Then why would you discriminate?”

Brenda’s story is a reminder that generosity is not only about giving things; it’s about giving people their rightful place in the human family.

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