Leprosy Village, Dongguan

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I spent the weekend of 31 Mar on a trip to a Leprosy village in Dongguan with a charity group who occasionally visits these villages and does some rennovation works. This time, I was mainly involved in helping paint a building where the Leprosy villagers live.

Due to the nature of the disease, paitents of Leprosy were often placed in isolation because people were afraid of the transmission of the disease. Many still are today. As a result, in China, Leprosy villages were built in remote areas where patients are concentrated. The village I visited this time is located on an isolated island off Dongguan and the only access from the outside world is by local ferry. Indeed, the whole institution is named as a hospital, although nearly all of the patients have now recovered.

A large part of the island is banana farm, where the local people grow and sell the fruit in order to get some cash. After walking for 15 minutes from the ferry, I arrived in the village. The conditions of the buildings are not as bad as what some of us originally thought. However, my first impression when we arrived was the happy faces of the villagers we encountered. I was glad to know that they were happy because they knew someone were visiting them. Indeed, some of them had been abandoned by their families while some have had their arms or legs, or both, cut off, since in the past there was no other way to cure the disease than that. Most of the villagers are in their 40s or above.

We spent the first day's afternoon to paint the building. It was the first time I have done such kind of work, so naturally, my progress was slow until I started to pick up some skills. We did not finish the work on the first day, so the remaining had to be done in the next morning.

The guys of our team were based in the staff quarters on the island, which is 5 minutes walk from where the villagers stay. The facilities there seem to be better, and we got air-conditioning as well. However, our room was full of mosquitoes and there was no hot water at all. But think of the conditions of the villagers and one would feel guilty to complain this or that. And then, we were there for only one night's time.

The next morning, the guys tried to finish the painting while the girls spent time talking to the villagers. From what we heard from them, these villagers depend on CNY 300 government benefit each month, which is equivalent to USD 38. However, they have to give CNY 200 of it to the village for food and rent. So for personal use, they have CNY 100/USD 13 only.

Before we left, we had some fun playing games with the villagers, and they seemed to be quite enjoying. This trip left a deep memory in my mind because it was the first time I have done such thing. But it did due more to the the happiness we felt from the villagers when they saw us visiting them. It was a feeling that is hard to describe. Maybe one has to experience losing something before he or she would realise how valuable such thing is.

Or these people should not have to suffer that much in the first place.

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