Leaving home was a decision supported by his mother and sisters for they too hoped for survival opportunities for Qian outside Zhaotong. In his hometown.

Embarking on his first ever journey, Qian had only ¥5, equivalent to less than one US dollar today. Begging along the way, he found an orphanage he thought would be his refuge. The orphanage however, drove him away after discovering about his illness. Wandering from place to place, he ended up in Puge where he begged for a living and found shelter in a cave in Yongan, a scarcely populated town. The cave was his home for the next six years. With some simple farming, Qian was able to sustain a living with his own crops. Darkness and threats from wild animals were not as bad as the worsening of leprosy. The lack of medicine led to the development of ulcers on his legs.

Eventually he met Jike Mosu who told Qian about the Leprosy Rehabilitation Centre in Xiangyang. Jike arranged for Qian to stay in a straw hut. He even arranged horses to transport Qian's belongings and food from the cave to his new home. The staff at the centre were friendly and helpful. Patients were allowed to stay as long as their illness required them to or if they wished to even after their recovery. There were approximately 100 leprosy patients.

Qian's condition, however, deteriorated.

His life was hard. Although he was allocated 20 acres of farmland, leprosy had led to permanent impairment of his legs and he had to walk on knees. His finger joints were so disfigured that he developed the condition known as "clawed hands”. To work in the fields, he invented his own tools and equipment that enabled his movements in the fields and farming activities. 

Many times he thought of ending his own life because of the pain and sufferings caused by leprosy but Qian was strong. He hung on because he had sworn he would leave his hometown to live. He was hopeful about his recovery and reunion with his family one day.  His uncle’s advice became his motto and he was determined to live. Perseverance proved its worth when the multi-drug therapy (MDT) became available and Qian's leprosy was cured. The disabilities, however, were permanent. 

As the world view changed leprosy drew more attention and, efforts were made on rehabilitation and educating the community about the illness.  While discrimination against leprosy patients was still common, more services were developed by charity organizations and NGO's to support patients. Recovered patients began reconnecting with society. In 2009 Qian with the help of The Leprosy Project and Phoenix TV was able to reunite with his family and friends in Zhaotong. After years of living as an outcast, it was a comfort to meet his family, nephews and their families and children. He applied for residence in a home for the elderly in the area but due to his history of leprosy the home refused him. He decided to return to Senkeluo, a small village in Puge where he had lived for so many years. Thanks to the support from the staff at The Leprosy Project he had been able to live independently by farming and selling his own produce.

Qian had experienced misfortunes and hardship throughout his life but he was thankful for the opportunities he had had for restarting a healthy and independent life. In 2013, when he learnt about the earthquake in Ya-an on 20th April, he decided to return the favors he had received by contributing ¥5,000 to the victims who suffered the loss of homes and families like he did years back. Mr. Lin from the Education Bureau in Sichuan advised him to keep some of his savings and donate only ¥150. Qian hoped the survivors of the disaster area would summon their courage and face the difficulties ahead. Qian truly believes there is always hope. 

He happened to have the chance to visit Er-mei Mountain and other places in Chengdu in 2013 supported by kind donations from the society. It was an eye-opening experience and he looked forward to more opportunities in future as the world became more accepting towards patients affected by leprosy (PALs). His uncle's advice echoed in his mind, "Being alive, it’s better than anything else."

Postscript:
The TV documentary “Homecoming Journey of a PAL” produced by Mr. Aaron Ren of Phoenix TV has been broadcasted nation-wide in China. You can watch it here.

Jidi was born in 1972 in Butou village, one of the leprosy rehabilitation villages in Sichuan province. He is the oldest of five, with two younger brothers and two younger sisters. His father was a barefoot doctor, and his mother a farmer. He attended the Temuli primary school in Butou town, a 40 minute walk along a mountain road. In the early 1980s, he and his family moved out of Butou village. In 1996, due to insufficient farmland outside of the village, forced them to move back to Butou village. Jidi spent most of his childhood taking care of his family’s goats, but would play jacks whenever he had a free moment.

Jidi and his family tried again to leave Butou Village, to return to his parents’ home village. Because his father was a leprosy patient, they fell victim to discrimination. Although he showed no visible deformities, the village was small and word spread quickly about their past. As a result, they were forced to move back to Butou village.

Before Jidi’s father was diagnosed with leprosy at the age of 18, he had high status in the village; almost everybody knew him. Therefore, his diagnosis was not kept secret for long. Jidi’s maternal grandparents were both leprosy patients, so Jidi’s mother was very knowledgeable about the disease. The fact that her future husband had leprosy didn’t bother her and she went ahead with the marriage.

After Jidi finished school at the age of 14, his parents arranged his marriage in accordance with Yi tradition. Jidi remembers the ceremony as being fun because they got to eat a lot of good food. During the ceremony, he wore new clothes while his bride wore a traditional Yi gown. If the couple is under 18, it is Yi tradition for the bride to go to the groom’s house for a banquet on their wedding night and return home the following morning after breakfast. Jidi paid a 2000 RMB dowry for his wife.

When Jidi and his wife finally moved in together, seven years after the ceremony. They were both embarrassed. In accordance with Yi tradition they slept in the same room but in separate beds. Their first child was born when Jidi was 24 years old. They had three more children in the years that followed.

In 1996 when he and his family moved back to Butou, he helped his father as a barefoot doctor, which began his exposure to health care work. He worked in health care in Butou village in 2006 and was hired by the Leprosy Project in 2007.

Today, Jidi works as the Assistant Manager of The Leprosy Project coordinating with villagers and health care workers. Jidi says that the best part about working for the Leprosy Project is rehabilitating people. The Leprosy Project’s achievements in the treatment of leprosy patients make him happy and proud. The favorite part of his job with The Project is Community Development and Prevention of Disease. He believes that through community development, the villages will improve their living standards, resulting in better health standards which will aid their efforts in disease prevention.

Although The Leprosy Project has been successful in their efforts to prevent disease and further disability, Jidi is frustrated that the people affected by leprosy have yet to see a significant change in their standard of living. They are eating the same foods they were eating 10 years ago, and their hygiene is still poor. The most difficult part of the Leprosy Project’s work is dealing with hygiene and education. People have been living in these rehabilitation villages for a very long time and it is therefore extremely difficult to change their habits. This is particularly frustrating for Jidi as a community worker. After health care providers clean the patients’ wounds and ulcers, they get dirty again when the patient returns home due to lack of hygiene in their dwellings. The dirt often harbors bacteria and germs, meaning the ulcers and wounds get re-infected very easily. Furthermore, the villagers’ diets lack nutrition – most villagers will have potato soup for almost every meal – which directly affects the healing of the ulcers and wounds.

edited by Georgie Reading

Axi Wujiemo is 30 years old, and arrived in the village in Xide when she was 13, after her parents were diagnosed with leprosy. Before then, she was able to attend primary school, so can speak a little bit of Mandarin, but only enough to get by.

When she was 17 years old she got married and a year later had her first son. Today, she has five sons, the youngest being 2 years old and the oldest 10. Having so many young children to care for is hard because they are not old enough yet to help her or her husband with manual labor or to go out and work for themselves in the fields or factories. However she jokes that when they are older it will still be difficult, saying, “Having five sons is going to be very expensive when they are older! When each of them get married, the dowries are going to be around 12,000 to 15,000 RMB per wife, so it’s going to be so costly when they get to that age.”

In addition to having a large and young family, Axi Wujiemo must also care for her two elderly parents and her disabled half-brother. He has a severe limp and a sway to his walk causing him to require crutches. He lives with their parents in the building constructed for the elderly PALs and those in the village with restricted mobility. She is very grateful to the project for giving him medical advice and help. He receives medicine once a month, which has helped to relieve pressure on the family to provide medical assistance and payments.

Her husband works in the fields most days and helps out around the house when he can, but otherwise will go into the city and get casual jobs. Despite having that source of income, they still need to make more money to support themselves sufficiently.

Eight years ago, The Leprosy Project employed some teachers to come and instruct the women of the village on how to embroider Yi patterns and since then, Axi Wujiemo has been able to perfect some relatively simple patterns. In a month, she can make many individual pieces to sell and provide another source of income. Some of the more complicated patterns take a lot longer and require more skill as there is more detail. She says, “doing the embroidery is great because it’s a fairly simple source of income for me and my family, but sometimes when I am too busy, I don’t have as much time to complete pieces. This is why I normally stick to the simple patterns so I can produce more in less time.” There is not one particular pattern she enjoys sewing the most, she just sews what she likes or what she thinks other people will like.

She has many wishes for the future, those being for her parents to remain healthy, for her half brother’s condition to improve, and for her children to work hard and get good grades at school so they can lead independent and self-sustaining lives. For now, however, she knows there is only so much she can do, so has resolved to continuing her work with embroidery and upholding her responsibility to care for her children and her parents, believing that by helping to make a living, she can make sure her five boys can have a better life than what she had.

Interview and translation by Georgie Reading
Edited by Isobel Caldwell

 Walewujian is 30 years old and lives in a village in Xide. She began doing embroidery eight years ago when the Leprosy Project hired some embroidery teachers to come to the village and teach the younger women about Yi embroidery and patterns. Prior to this, she already had sewing skills and would mend clothes and do some simple patterns. However, when they were learning how to embroider, Walewujian would spend extra time perfecting the patterns using discarded templates and instructions. “I feel happy that I have the skill and ability to embroider these patterns, and when I finish a piece and see that it looks good, I feel happy seeing my achievements and the product of my labours.”

Walewujian says that though the patterns they embroider do have meaning and significance in Yi culture, they do not know exactly what any one pattern means. Due to not being able to get an education and not being able to learn how to read or write, the women have had no way to properly record the meanings of each pattern and so they have simply passed the images down through the generations. She says that they are more concerned now with the overall look and aesthetic of the embroidery pieces, and use them to make bags or as patches on clothes.

She does know about the meanings of certain colours that are used. She says that the main traditional Yi colours are red, yellow and black. Fire is very significant in Yi culture, as they believe that you need it your entire life, whether for warmth, light or protection. In Yi culture, they always cremate those who have passed away so fire is present from the start to the end of your life. Red symbolizes fire, yellow symbolizes the flames of a torch as the torch festival is their biggest festival in Yi culture. Additionally, during the torch festival, it is common to see some members of society carrying yellow umbrellas. Black is a very common colour in Yi clothing and culture. Even today, elderly Yi people all wear traditional clothing and you will never see them wearing white, only black with various patterns on them. It represents the Yi nature and character, which is mainly solemn, serious and dignified. Various other colours such as green, pink and blue have been integrated into Yi patterns, but they are mostly used to look nice, rather than hold a particular symbolic meaning.

Walewujian is now able to sew any type of picture or pattern on request, for example, rabbits or dinosaurs, to which she adds a certain Yi flair. Her family encourages her to do the embroidery as it is a ready source of income and is also something that she enjoys. The money she makes from the embroidery is spent on supplies for her family, depending on what they might need most at the time. “I wish to learn more new patterns and incorporate more complicated styles of sewing into my embroidery, so as to further my skill set.”

Walewujian is from Meigu County in Liangshan. When she was 10 years old, her father passed away, and soon after, she was sent to Xide village to move in with the family of her husband to be. She has never had the opportunity to move back to her home village and neither her older sister or younger brother knew how to visit her in Xide, so overtime she has lost contact with them. Her mother moved to Xide village about 15 years ago, so she is able to see her often.

Her family was quite poor and neither of her parents saw education as imperative, so Walewujian was never able to go to school as a child. She never learned to read, write or speak Mandarin, and knows now how much that limits her in daily life. She has four children- one daughter and three sons- and three are currently attending primary school, the youngest not being old enough to begin school just yet. The children help her out around the house when they are home and work hard during the holidays and weekends. She says that her proudest moment was when she had her children, but it gives her even more hope seeing them getting an education. “Education is very important. For example, if you don’t learn to speak, read or write Mandarin Chinese, life will be extremely difficult if you when you go outside of the village, and it will be near impossible to create a prosperous life for yourself outside of a Yi village.”

Interview and translation by Georgie Reading
Edited by Isobel Caldwell

Wazhaerluomo is 31 years old and she lives in the Xide village. She is a single mother of four, so she has many responsibilities, including caring for her children, her parents, who also live in the village, and the family livestock. When her first husband passed away, his family arranged for Wazhaerluomo to remarry his younger brother. Her second husband also passed away, and now she is unable to re-marry because many of the villagers believe her to be cursed.

One year, she won the beauty contest in the torch festival, although she can’t remember how long ago this was. She doesn’t think of herself as beautiful, and feels quite shy and embarrassed when talking about it. Every Yi girl has a selection of traditional dresses, so on the day, she chose the one that she thought was the nicest and put it on, without any special preparations.

She is able to speak some Mandarin, having learned it while working in an electrical factory in Jiangsu to make money for her family as the sole breadwinner. She found that being in the factory made looking after her family much too difficult, so she moved back to the village after four months. It was too much to expect four children under the age of 12 and two elderly people to care sufficiently for themselves in her absence.

After the embroidery teachers came to the village eight years ago to teach the women Yi embroidery skills, she would make embroidery pieces in her free time. She enjoyed practicing and improving her sewing skills when she could.

“Sometimes my life can become quite busy having to maintain the household and care for everyone, but I love doing embroidery because it is fun and when I finish a piece, it gives me a great sense of accomplishment. Sometimes I have too many other responsibilities and can only half finish a piece, which is disappointing, but I still love to reap the benefits of doing the physical work myself, as well as be able to earn some money from it.”

Her happiest days were when she was young and carefree, but now she has a lot of burdens to bear. When she was younger, it was just her parents she had to care for, but at the time they were still young and independent so there was not as much that she had to do. Now, without a husband, and with two elderly parents and four children to look after, her life seems constantly tiring and busy.

The embroidery has given her a good opportunity to become independent and make her own money and she is able to do one to two embroidery pieces a day. 

She sometimes makes clothing for herself and her children, but otherwise buys their clothes. Last year, she started to make her own traditional Yi outfit. So far she has made the three-piece shirt, but wishes to continue on and make the trousers. They take about one year to complete and often are decorated with real silver, so they will also cost a fair amount of money to make. The price to buy an already made pair of traditional Yi trousers can be up to 10,000 RMB from a store or tailor. 

She says that her children are all very helpful and obedient at the moment, but she is not sure what they may be like in the future. She hopes that her children will all continue to go to school, receive an education and become self-sufficient and independent, allowing them to grow as people and have futures with more opportunities. She is very thankful to the project for helping them because she is now able to make these pieces and earn an income for her and her family without having to move away and work in a factory She is grateful that the embroidery helps her provide an education for her children.

interview and translation by Georgie Reading
Edited by Idobel Caldwell

This year, from May 5th to May 14th, Verna, Matt, Bianca and I had the incredible opportunity of volunteering with The Leprosy Project. With the exception of Matt, none of us had ever done anything like this sort of experience. We knew going in this was going to be a very new experience for us, and, personally, I had no idea what to expect.

When we arrived in China, specifically Hong Kong, we arranged a meeting with members of the board, to introduce us to the project before we left for Sichuan and the villages we would be helping in. What struck me from this meeting with Tony, Theresia, and Nick, was the kindness that they showed us and the immense passion that they had for this project. We were strangers to them and them to us, but they met us as if we were old friends, and we were doing them some incredible favour! When we finally got around to talking about the project, we learned a lot that wasn’t possible in anything but a face to face meeting. We learned that they weren’t just a “giving out hand-outs” type of organization. They wanted to target grassroots issues, and hoped that one day the project was sustainable without them. I admired this greatly. Without a doubt, this long-term plan is much more challenging than simply giving out handouts, but they were willing to overcome the challenge to have a greater impact.

The next day, as we arrived at the airport to fly to Sichuan, we met another incredible person, Seb. Seb was to be our guide of sorts throughout the next 8 days. We also met with Paco, a local Rotaractor who had decided to come on this trip with us. They, as the members of the board were, were also kind and passionate. I began to think kindness and passion was going to be a theme of everyone we met on this trip (and it was!). Once our flight landed in Chengdu, we boarded a train to the main project office, where we met the staff and prepared for the main part of the trip: visiting 4 villages in the next 6 days.

In the first village we visited, we had the opportunity of speaking with some of the villagers, so we could hear their stories. They had been isolated many years ago, leaving behind all their lives simply because they had contracted a disease that had an associated stigma. I began to think how unfair this was. They, first, were battling a disease that caused them loss of limbs, sight and health. And second, they had to lose their families, lives and homes because isolation was easier than treatment. It was also difficult for them to rejoin society, as the stigma was still present and they themselves had fears of being shunned a second time. The Leprosy Project has now cured them of the disease, but, due to their isolation for many years, issues of nutrition, secondary infections, and dealing with physical disabilities still lingered.

These are also the issues The Leprosy Project works on. They teach villages about nutrition, and how to cook so that they get all the nutrients they need. The second village we visited was much larger, and had many children. The issue of malnourishment was easy to see in these kids. They were skinny, small, and many looked 3 or 4 years younger than their actual age. We spent our time in this village in a cooking contest. This was a fun way for the project staff to teach the village about proper, nutritious cooking that would be healthy for them and the children. I was sad to see the kids in the condition they were in, but encouraged by the work we had done that day. With the continued help of the project, the situation will get better.

In the next two villages, we focused on hygiene. Some of the villager’s rooms were often dirty, unhygienic and perfect resting places for bugs and disease. Cleaning these were very important. Due to the leprosy, many of the people affected by leprosy (or PALs, a term created to remove the stigma of “lepers”) had lost feeling in their limbs, and if they ever got cut they would risk ulcers. They cannot feel the ulcers and end up having them for long periods of time, a large health risk. By teaching them about personal hygiene, and how to keep the village clean, the villagers are able to notice cuts more often (because they are paying attention) and risk is decreased due to cleaner conditions.

It would be impossible for me to talk about everything we learned over these 8 days, but I will say, again, that I have never seen such a passionate and caring group. This starts with the board, and stretches right over into the staff, and even to us volunteers. Targeting the grassroots issues is not easy, but, I think, it’s the best way to go about any problem.

 I also want to thank everyone that worked to allow us to go on this trip: the board, the staff, as well as the many local volunteers (who I have yet to mention) who acted as translators for us, and became lifelong friends. A special thanks to the Rotary Club of Vancouver who sponsored for this trip.

I’ll finish with the moment that impacted me the most. This moment showed me that the project is about more than just nutrition, hygiene, and dealing with disease. In the very last village we visited, one of the PALs came to see us and one of the staff members had a conversation with her, and translated her words to us. I don’t remember the whole conversation, but I do remember the lady telling the staffer to tell us (loosely translated) “not to come near me, because I will get them sick”. This lady had been cured of leprosy, and would not have been at all contagious. But, because of all the unfair treatment she has received in her life, she just assumed that we had to avoid her, as if she wasn’t just another person. I realized then that on top of all the other work that they do, The Leprosy Project is about letting the PALs know that we do care about them, and that they are nothing to be afraid of, they are just like us.

Gurinder Walia
Rotaract Club of Vancouver

For more photos please visit the Photo Gallery

Jiji Rihuo carefully wiped the stool clean before offering it to his guests. He expressed his gratitude to The Leprosy Project. At first he was reluctant to shake hands since for most of his life people avoided contact with him. When we patted his shoulder he relaxed and reached out to shake our hands. Following is his story: I was born in Tuojue Township of Butuo County in 1945. I was the one of three children and had and enviable life with my parents, sister and brother. My father was the accountant for our village in Butuo. I even had the chance to go to school. I loved studying. I went to school happily every day. I hoped to go to secondary school, but in the winter of 1955 when I was 10, I began to lose feeling in my left foot and my skin became numb. I remember this clearly. When I told my father, he did not say anything, but I could see tears running down his face.
Afterwards I regretted telling my father what was happening to me. I should have hidden everything. People from the Township Government and Sanitary Station brought medical equipment to my home every day. Each time they came to our home my mother cried. As time went by, our friends, relatives, and neighbors began avoiding me.
I was isolated and it was very difficult for my parents and sister. My younger brother was too young to understand what was happening, but the rest of the family felt the shame of my illness.

A year after I was diagnosed with the disease, my father, unable to bear the disgrace, collapsed and died. I had brought misfortune and humiliation to our family and I entertained thoughts of suicide. My mother’s kindness saved me. She tried to re-enroll me in school but no school would take me due to my illness. Though we were shunned, my mother never deserted me. My sister tried to visit, but her husband’s family did not allow her to. She was locked up by her husband. She had to live a life without light because of me.

Jiji Ruhuo speaks with Project staff about his life

We lived in isolation for several years. It was time for my brother to get married but no one wanted to marry him. I knew that if I stayed in the village he would never be able to get married. I had to leave for the sake of my brother. Through the County Government I found out that there was a hospital for leprosy in Puge.
My mother and I walked for 4 days to get to the leprosy hospital in Xiangyang Township of Puge County. I was 17. We found a shabby cottage in the village of Senkeluo to live in. We were also assigned work in the field. Fortunately, in this village nobody discriminated against us. We were actually valued by the other villagers. Since I had two years of education, I was assigned a clerical job in the village. I did not have to do manual labor and could even help my mother and lessen her work load.

Honestly, it was not a bad thing that we moved to Puge. I found happiness and a family here. I eventually became a village official. Many people worried about me not being married and tried to set me up. My mother was anxious to see me get married while she was still alive. With the help of other villagers, I met and married the most beautiful girl in this village, Jihuo Moerluo. I was 28.

That is when my good life began. People saw that I was an honest and responsible person, and they let me become the accountant of the village. I did this for more than 30 years. I retired in 2009 when I was 64.

Though my life has been simple, I feel content and happy. My children are all married and have their own families; they no longer have to live with the risk of contracting leprosy. Life has become better and better. I would like to wish everyone in the village a better life and hope that every child will have the chance to receive a better education.

The Project held a five-day training for village healthcare workers in September. Eight healthcare workers and all of the project staff attended the training. Staff and healthcare workers spent 3 days in Luding for on-site training and 2 days in Xide for training in childhood malnutrition, and health and hygiene education. Luding healthcare workers were divided into small groups so that Project staff could give individual instruction. Healthcare workers performed sterile operations, treated ulcers, infections and callosity. Project staff observed the healthcare workers in order to review their skills, give feedback and additional training as needed.

During the training on health and hygiene education, and childhood malnutrition, staff encouraged healthcare workers to discover the problems and issues on their own. They then worked with the Project staff to find solutions. This participatory approach keeps healthcare workers engaged and motivated. The trainees were also given the chance to observe flies, and parasites under a microscope to better understand why hygiene is important for everyone, and how germs can harm people. They also have a better understanding of the problems caused by malnutrition and how a balanced nutritious diet will strengthen their bodies.

In July nine volunteers from Xichang College received training from Project staff Kelly Xu, Fang Jingru, Rihai Riga and Make Hamo.

Kelly Xu and Fang Jingru explained the conditions in the villages and discussed their own experiences in communicating with villagers. Staff established targets for health and hygiene education and expected results. Volunteers enthusiastically engaged in the training and gave many useful comments.

Through the training, staff was able to create templates for future training in other villages. The format for data collection was also enhanced in order to refine the assessments of hygiene performance.

After the training, the staff and nine volunteers traveled to Qianjin, a remote mountain village in Xide County with a population of 500. Due to the remote location, many of the elderly residents have never left the village and the children have received little education. Most of the villagers have no concept of personal or household hygiene. The poor standard of sanitation in the community leads to the easy transmission of many infectious diseases.

The Project staff and volunteers started by giving basic training to 42 students from the village. The three groups then visited each home in the village to talk about hygiene and the effect it has on health.

Every household received training in home hygiene, including cleaning furniture and floor, sweeping the areas around their home, and washing their clothes and bedding. Both students and their parents were keen to participate. Villagers understand that they must persist in keeping their home and the village clean to help prevent the spread of disease and to beautify the village.

ffThe Leprosy Project arranged a summer volunteer teaching program in cooperation with Siyu Organization for Social Responsibility, the biggest non-governmental volunteer project for education and community development in the Greater Liangshan area. Nine volunteers from the Siyu Organization spent their summer holidays in Xihe Village in Jinyang and Kuihua Village in Ganluo. The volunteers taught courses such as Chinese Language, English, Music, Art, Environmental Protection, Civil Education. They also designed courses specifically to suit the needs of each village.

The Leprosy Project is grateful to have the volunteers working in the villages. The village children benefited and it gave the volunteers an opportunity to learn firsthand about leprosy and the people in the villages. We hope this will be one more way to help end the stigma faced by the people in the villages we serve.

The Most Beautiful Holidays - Xihe Primary School

July 11, 2013 was the first time that I traveled without my family. This is when I began my trip as volunteer teacher in Xihe Village of Jinyang County in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. I felt exceptionally good because there was hope when I stepped on to the train bound for Xichang City. I have gained a lot; most importantly I met new friends and students during my time there.

Zhao Jie - The most supportive person and the one to whom I need to express my gratitude.

Like most of the others, at the very beginning I was feeling a bit hesitant to teach in Xihe Village, Jinyang since it is well-known for difficult mountain paths and it is a leprosy rehab village. I finally accepted the challenge and when I told Zhao Jie he immediately joined the program with me. I personally have lots of shortcomings; picking on others is definitely one of them. I kept picking on him on the way to the village, but he never showed any dissatisfaction with me. Zhao Jie got along very well with everyone in the village; he taught and played ball games with children. Everyone liked him very much.

We had plans for doing household visits, and that was the most tiring duty for me. We had to walk more than half an hour on a rocky mountain path just to visit one family. Zhao Jie never complained and finished all the household visits. During the visits we met a boy whose mother had recently passed away. No one was taking good care of him. He was wearing ragged clothes and shoes. Zhao Jie walked hours to the nearest town to buy the boy new clothes and shoes. Zhao not only knew how to take care of others but he was also a good cook. He made me feel that I no longer needed to worry about anything.

Lanze Biga - The most moving student

Lanze Biga was the first student that we met on the way to Xihe Village. We met him as we passed through another village on the way to Xihe. To subsidize his family's income, Lanze Biga walks three hours to buy snacks to resell in his village. He is 13 years old, but only a grade 3 student.

Lanze is a courageous and talkative boy, who called me "little chub" a nickname I was not happy with. When I found out that most of the village children had only two meals a day and potatoes were their staple food I realized the reason all the villagers were so thin; and of course I am a "chub" compared to them. The heartbreaking thing was that most of the children in the village are suffering from malnutrition. The children were polite and willing to share. One day we went fishing. One of the children dropped his shoes in the river; and of course a pair of shoes means a lot to the child. Lanze took off his shoes right away and offered them to the child.

These village children are smaller than children of same age group in towns and cities; though their appearance is smaller, their hearts and minds are much bigger. They know the joy of sharing. They often picked flowers and grilled corn for us when we were in the village. The day finally came when we had to leave the village. Lanze cried for a long time. We still keep in contact by phone, and Lanze is now the team leader in the class, and he has been practicing writing. He hopes that we can visit the village again soon.

I am not writing this to tell people that we have been doing something special, but because I want to let everyone know that there are still people and children in need of help and concern, and to let people know that leprosy is not scary. It is curable and totally under control nowadays. I would like to thank the Leprosy Project for letting me have such an opportunity that I could teach and live in the village. Thank everyone from The Leprosy Project, you are indeed the most beautiful people in the world.