Dignity Regained: Cambodia, is a collection of personal narratives of persons affected by leprosy that has been published this year in both Khmer and English.  

Not only did persons affected by leprosy supply the narratives, they also took care of the planning, editing and design of this publication. The personal experiences are charted – the downs as well as the ups – and all show that they are accepted by the members of their communities and have been able to continue their lives and enjoy them after being cured of leprosy, even if they may have been left with an impairment or impairments as a result of this disease.

The last narrative in the collection is by someone who was orphaned at five years old when their parents died of malaria. They married and after the birth of their second child, what was one lesion had increased to many lesions over their body and they could no longer move their feet. They had to take multi-drug therapy for the leprosy and also medication to stop the reactions they were experiencing to that treatment, and finally they had reconstructive surgery on their feet. Today this woman is looking after her children and husband and rearing pigs and chickens. They say: “Nowadays, all my children go to school. They are clever and study well. No one in my village discriminates against me. On the contrary, they admire me because I am working very hard for my living.”

Without exception, each narrator encourages everyone reading this book, who suspects they might have leprosy, to have it diagnosed and treated as soon as possible so that they can return to normal life as soon as possible.

Similar collections have been published over the last six years, with the support of the Sasakawa Memorial Health Foundation, a member of ILEP. For example, a Chinese issue came out in 2009 and a compilation for Indonesia was published in Bahasa Indonesia in 2010. There have also been Dignity Regained collections published in Ghana, the Philippines and Myanmar. The series has been published mostly in local languages so that their messages could reach the wider community. They all follow in the footsteps and pattern of the first Dignity Regained book that came out in English and several local languages in India in 2005. That first collection was published to show just how many people affected by leprosy have been able to lead normal, productive lives and was edited by Professor Ujjwal K Chowdhury, who was involved in a series of sensitisation workshops for the media about portraying leprosy accurately. There is a plan to publish another Dignity Regained collection in India this year.

These Dignity Regained collections do much to encourage self-belief amongst persons affected by leprosy and inspire confidence and respect of the general public towards them, thus helping to root out any lingering negative stereotypes in the perception of members of the public towards persons affected by leprosy.

There have been very few, if any, books of this nature in many countries. It is hoped that this series will set an example of how powerful such compilations of life stories can be in changing society’s mindset about leprosy.

To request copies please write to the Sasakawa Memorial Health Foundation: smhf@tnfb.jp

 

Categories: Africa, Asia, Cambodia, China, Europe, Ghana, India, Middle East, Myanmar, News and Notes