ALPHONSUS AGBORH chronicles the challenges facing People Affected with Leprosy (PALs) in Delta State and how they are rising up against stigmatisation and neglect.
They are rejected by communities, even their relations. They are dejected, psychologically downcast and dispirited. In a life of solitude, everything around them is grim and unpalatable, as they live in a world where other human beings have given them a distance.
The People Affected by Leprosy (PALS), otherwise known as lepers, are abhorred and avoided.
That is why the colonial and present administrations prefer building a colony or settlement in the forest, far away from the town for them.
Even when one recovers from the disease, the community still finds it difficult to accept such a person and instead, banish him/her to ponds, rivers, market and public places. The stigma on them has become indelible for too long. Like its twin disease, tuberculosis, leprosy has come to afflict mankind, and destroying generations of family .
The problem of integration into community life and dignity becomes aggravated and their children continue to be stigmatised too, even though they don’t have the infection.
Based on this, ex-lepers have decided to take a leap by taking their destiny in their hands to secure their future and that of their children.
This gave birth to an international association known as Integration, Dignity and Economic Advancement (IDEA) in Seneca Fall, United States of America (USA) to promote socio-integration of PALs into community life as well as raise their status and facilitate economic empowerment.
In 2003, the association was launched in Minna, Niger State, as its national headquarters.
Nine years after, lepers in Delta State decided to key into the programmes of the association by waking up from their slumber and with their shoulders high to, at least, seek relevance and support from spirited organisations to improve on their living standard.
A visit to the PALs camp at the Tuberculosis and Leprosy Referral Hospital in EKu, Delta State, smacked off a pathetic story of neglect by the three tiers of government.
The camp, though an improvement of what is obtainable elsewhere in the country, is a place where affected husbands and wives live with their children.
Marriages are also contracted there as rejected wives and husbands meet to find new love in the colony.
With a population of obout 200, the people engage in farming and petty trading even when their fingers and legs are chopped off. Some of them have lived there for over 15 years and cannot return home.
Along many Nigerian highways, PALs are commonly found living in groups and begging for alms.
The sad aspect of it is that some givers often think that most of the PALs are paying for their own sins by being afflicted.
They have children in schools and nobody cares how they manage to pay their fees.
It is based on this and other reasons that PALs in Delta State went to identify with them and ward off every stigmatisation and demand full integration for them.
According to Mr. Ogbe Johnson, Delta State chairman of IDEA, the era of highway street begging was over and PALs are now seeking ways of empowering themselves by appealing to governments and non-governmental organisations for support.
PALs, he said, wanted to enlighten the public of the need to stop stigmatisation and discrimination against them who are also expected to build self-dignity around themselves.
The lepers are not too comfortable with the meagre stipend of about N7,000 to each person on monthly basis by the Delta State government.
For them, as Nigerians, they are also entitled to get relief by assessing the microcredit and other loan facilities in the state and be assisted to acquire skills while the scholarship be given to their children.
At EKu, the people testified that government officials could do better to assist them with gifts to keep body and soul together.
Often, oil companies, churches and NGOs visit them with gifts including clothings and foodstuff, just to tickle the people that they are still part of the larger society.
One good thing about the whole episode is that new or fresh cases of leprosy are hard to come by, as reported ones have history of many years.
This is because of the intensive care by Delta State government and the renowned German Leprosy Relief Association (GLRA) to eradicate the scourge in the state.
The GLRA provides free drugs, prosthesis and encourages patients that all hopes are not lost because the disease is curable.
Possibly, the medical team at the referral hospital could move a step further by embarking on enlightenment campaigns to create awareness on how to prevent the disease and attract support for PALs.
But the hiccup therein is the lack of vehicles which, if provided, could facilitate field workers to reach out and assist the PALs in their movements.
Based on so many restrictions, IDEA chairman in Delta, Mr. Johnson, said “we can no longer sit and even die in silence.
“We were sick and now some of us are healed; we can do something and we need support from the government, politicians, religious organisations, companies and individuals.
“It is on that strength we are trying to launch for support and we believe that in the end, God will touch the hearts of men to have a rethink for us to live better.
“We need to stop this stigmatisation and we believe that all governments can help us sensitise the people that leprosy can be cured.
“Our children do motorcycle business; we farm and do other things to survive, but it will be better if we are empowered to do more lucrative businesses.
“We are forming a cooperative body so that we can get soft loans to trade and do better farming. We need borehole, electricity, schools and improved housing,” he stated.
According to the chairman, the road leading to the camp is not motorable, especially during the rainy season.
“Workers at TBL centre and we in the camp suffer so much due to the bad road.
“Are we not human beings, why are we forgotten? We hope, Gov. Uduaghan will visit us here and see things for himself,” Johnson said.
