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Discover the real stories...
Jeannot E’s Story
Posted on 19 January 2009 by
Jeannot E. was a leprosy patient. His experience of this disease is at once both singular and so common that the telling of it could be used to promote understanding of what it is like to get leprosy and to be cured of it.
He was diagnosed with leprosy and received his first treatment in Nkonmelen in the year 1951 when he was eight years old. In 1958 he was confined to the leprosarium of Sangmelima, in the south of the country. It was the former priest of the catholic mission in Sangmelima, who cared for him throughout his stay. He married and had two children before his wife abandoned him. He has since remarried and has been with his second wife for more than ten years.
Whilst at Sangmelima, he learnt to be a driver. However, when he left, except for his wife and children, he lost everything – his job, friends, wider family… Then he was selected to participate in the Social Programme. Jeannot decided he would like to help build a house for his family and to accept help with the financing of a commercial activity. He chose to learn how to make mortars for cooking.
At first, however, undertaking these activities seemed to be tedious and difficult for Jeannot, who had become accustomed to receiving permanent assistance including being given food and clothes. Above all Jeannot felt impotent and useless. Staff from the Social Programme sensitised Jeannot and the inhabitants of his village to the fact that he is first and foremost a man. And a man, who is capable of taking care of himself. Gradually Jeannot began to believe in himself and found the courage to try building the house and to try making mortars. His enthusiasm, motivation and self-confidence increased as he played a greater and greater role in constructing a house and as he became able to create mortars through his own efforts. 
Jeannot E making a mortar. Image: ALES
Today Jeannot lives in his own home with his wife and children. He cultivates his own plot of land and earns his living by making and selling mortars.
Categories: Cameroon, Field Activities