How can we help people with albinism facing violence and discrimination in East Africa as college students halfway across the world? On Episode 23 of Legally Blonde & Blind, Tess Ballis joins Marissa to discuss healthcare, education, and dispelling harmful myths surrounding albinism at a grassroots level. She explains how advocating for human rights has boosted her confidence and encouraged her to embrace albinism as part of her identity. Listeners will learn about concrete actions they can take no matter what their resources are. Tess Ballis is a junior at Northwestern University studying history and political science. Her parents founded the nonprofit Vision for Tomorrow, which seeks to empower people with low vision through research, advocacy, and awareness campaigns. She was a keynote speaker at the 2018 Skin Cancer Foundation of South Africa Summit and gave a TEDx Talk titled “Albinos Don’t Have Souls: What it means to be human from someone who has been told she is not.”"I just want people to realize we—as people with albinism—have a genetic condition. It affects our hair, our skin and our eyes, but that is the only difference. We are human beings, the same as anyone else."Connect with Legally Blonde & Blind!Website - https://www.legallyblondeblind.com/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/legallybb_/?hl=en Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/legallybb/ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/legally-blonde-blind/Connect with Tess! Standing Voice Interview https://news.standingvoice.org/tess-ballisTEDx Talk - https://youtu.be/qhoGts4PGXMKey Points: Resources:https://news.standingvoice.org/tess-ballishttps://visionfortomorrow.org/https://www.underthesamesun.com/ https://www.ohchr.org/en/stories/2022/03/attacks-against-people-albinism-are-hate-crimes-un-albinism-experthttps://www.hrw.org/news/2019/07/01/out-shadows-resilience-and-courage-people-albinism-mozambiquehttps://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/we-are-tired-of-being-ignoredhttps://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/q-and-a-an-international-movement-for-albinism-rightshttps://www.voanews.com/a/africa_women-mothers-children-albinism-suffer-worst-discrimination-report-finds/6185246.htmlhttps://www.thejfa.com/read/on-the-african-continent-discrimination-against-people-with-albinism-is-intensifyinghttps://minorityrights.org/programmes/library/trends2020/tanzania/Transcript - https://www.legallyblondeblind.com/post/23-making-our-voices-heard-albinism-and-human-rights-advocacy-feat-tess-ballis