A strong desire obligated me to set aside the office work for a day. I had to visit the field again. This was something which I had done regularly for twenty years up until the time, a few years ago, when a team I had successfully built up, had been able to take over full responsibility for this task from me.

It was a story I had heard. There was a family living in miserable conditions in a remote area of Yemen, situated between its borders with the Sultanate of Oman and Saudi Arabia, called Al-Mahara. This is a desert area on the coast of the Indian Ocean facing the famous, natural and wonderful Island of Socotra.

The four-wheel drive vehicle had to fight the desert of the Empty Quarter to reach our destination - a family home that had been abandoned because one of them had had leprosy. It was a two-storeyed mud house with eight rooms. There was not a trace of furniture. Only the roof, ceilings and walls remained. A dusty picture of an old man hung from one wall.

We were shown around this house by the owner. This old woman told us: "We were all living together in this house with my husband and his father, who had leprosy. My father-in-law lived here for years until he died, hidden from the sight of other people. Since all the villagers knew that my husband's father had had leprosy, after his death the pressure on us to move was great. Our neighbours believed our house was full of leprosy germs. We were forced to throw all of the furniture into the valley to be carried away by the next flood brought by the Indian Ocean. We then had to leave our home - with not a piece of furniture to our name. For the last three years we have been living together, cramped into one room. All twelve of us!"

Then I spoke: "Look Madam, there are no leprosy germs on any of these walls.  They cannot survive outside the body for more than two days". I touched my face to a wall of the house. Then each member of my team did as I had done and ran his face along the walls. "All of us will be affected if there is leprosy on these walls".  I added: "You have to return to your house with your children". "No, Doctor, I cannot", she replied. "Even my husband has left us. He emigrated to Saudi Arabia three years ago. He couldn't face the village community.  

As we were all leaving the house, I asked the leader of the village to get every person in the village to gather at the mosque. When we were all there, I started a health education session. This lasted for the next two hours. I answered  many questions. I used many verses from the Holy Quran to convince the villagers that leprosy is not that serious a disease.

By the end of the day, the family was back in their home.

Dr. Yasin Al Qubati, Local Representative of German Leprosy and Tuberculosis Relief Association, E-mail: glrayemen@y.net.ye 

Category: Field Activities