Lepers lives a quiet but isolated area. Few people would come here. They are forgotten

I spared one day from tight schedule. With the arrangement of the local friend, I was going to visit a village living with lepers. according to him, there are dozens of such villages in Yunnan province. Most of the leprosy patients are very old and the size of the villages became smaller. A Friday morning, we set out in a rented mini-van. The village is about 2 hours ride from Kunming. Apart from several friends from LA, we came along with Liang Ping, a local Chinese medicine doctor.

The van packed with us and bags of materials bringing to the village. I was curious why the Chinese medicine doctor had been visiting the village. A friend in Kunming talked about their experiences in visiting the village during the past decades.

Leprosy is actually a low-infective illness. There’s a false impression among people during the past 10 years. They thought the illness would be infected to people around, so they sent the patients to remote areas, leaving them in places far away from the towns. Apart from subsides from the government, the lepers have to grow vegetables and raise chicken. It looks like a quiet area, but it is actually an isolated place. Few people would come here, even though their relatives who had forgotten them.

When we arrived at Yiliang county, we ride to a twist village road. We finally arrived at the foot of the mountain where the village is located. Limbs of the patients have been serious deformed. The wounds were ulcer. Liang Ping had been visiting the village regularly. She helped to treat the wounds. She also chat with them.

Shalom Leprosy Compassion Ministry: People with leprosy are sent to isolated villages where they are abandoned and forgotten by society. The Shalom Leprosy Compassion Ministry has a special place in its heart for these people and organizes groups of volunteers to travel to villages plagued with leprosy in order to provide medical, living, and psychological assistance. The Shalom Leprosy Compassion Ministry is located in Kunming, Yunnan.

I met Doctor Liang Ping in 2010 when we brought a group to visit village. I had heard her name from a lot of foreign friends. This time, I had the opportunity to meet her, a plain women with a backpack, holding medicine box on the shoulder and wearing a sunhat. I later knew, their services were done at the outdoor, so Liang Ping was wearing a sunhat to protect her eyes.

I was honored to be with volunteers of Shalom and participated serving ministry. I experienced their difficulties and love in serving the lepers. Their love, tolerance and giving were outstanding. In particular, Liang Ping who had been serving lepers for more than 10 years did a lot of jobs for treating and healing lepers as bring medicines and help to build water tanks and solar-powered bath by cooperation with TFish and volunteers. She also tried her best to help the patients’ children to go to school.

There are dozens of villages for lepers in Yunnan province. Liang Ping had visited a lot of them. She paid to travels, medicines and gifts for the lepers before she received support from TFish. She always keep the lepers’ needs in her mind. She brought 4 of lepers who were comparably young to hospital for the treatment and paid their medical fees. The government’s subsidies (200RMB/month) for the lepers were far from enough for their lives. 4 of them received government’s subsistence allowances who are above 70 years old. Apart from food, they need to take medicines. Life is hard for them.

Shalom Leprosy Compassion Ministry:People with leprosy are sent to isolated villages where they are abandoned and forgotten by society. The Shalom Leprosy Compassion Ministry has a special place in its heart for these people and organizes groups of volunteers to travel to villages plagued with leprosy in order to provide medical, living, and psychological assistance. The Shalom Leprosy Compassion Ministry is located in Kunming, Yunnan.
​
On 2016, Shengen continued his visit to the leprosy villages, volunteers, such as Liang Ping, could only visit Yiliang County this month due to transportation reason. There, visited the sheep pens and the ditches in rehabilitation village. They were also mainly there to give the survivors medical help.

1: Medical Services:

9 months 5 days ago, we went to the of Yiliang County with his team to visit the rehabilitation center. Our greatest need is Liang Ping because she is a doctor who specializes in acupuncture and medicine. Liang Ping’s gave BoCai’s uncle acupuncture. BoCai is now living in their home, since its convenient for him there to attend school. His back was very painful. He's the one most looking forward to is Dr. Liang Ping, because the acupuncture and medicine are very helpful to him. But because they could not continue giving him acupuncture treatment, his condition will relapse in a week.

Those particularly in need of medical services are the elderly women, particularly in terms of gynecological problems. Unfortunately, Liang Ping cannot help them solve that issues and only give them acupuncture to help ease their pain. Their bodily functions are highly affected due to nutritional deficiencies. BoCai’s grandfather is really in need of the acupuncture because he has pain in both his bac and legs. When the pain lapse, he is even unable to carry simple things. The medicine Dr. Liang Ping makes for his back and acupuncture is particularly good. This is his partner who lives outside of the village to recover- Grandmother Li. She is very sick and have been waiting at the rehabilitation village to let Liang Ping give her a good look. This are the medicines Liang Ping prescribed for her illness.

Baocai’s grandfather is most in need of the medicine Liang Ping makes. Unfortunately, it is few in number and often unable to ensure their needs. So, Dr. Liang Ping decided to teach them how to make it themselves in times of need.

Thanks to the support from Transparent Fish Fund, Yunnan Leprosy has accomplished the following:

• visited 9 rehabilitation villages
• cared for 110 ill people
• built solar-powered showers for 2 villages
• constructed a reservoir for a village
• donated a 3-wheeled motorcycle
• sent 138 bags of rice, 42 cookers, 37 blankets, clothing, and other daily necessities
• gave many health examinations and acupuncture treatments; cleaned ulcer wounds; provided creams, insoles, and other commonly used medicines
• funded 3 children’s education

Shuigou village is 170 kilometers away from Kunming and home to about 30 lepers. The village is in an area with higher elevation. The weather is cooler, and winters are longer. There is a large temperature difference between morning and afternoon.

The eldest leper is over 70 and the youngest is over 50. Drinking water used to be a problem, but now the village has running water, so that situation has greatly improved. However, there still isn’t water to take a shower. When one of the lepers Lao Wang went to Yangquangou village and saw the solar-powered shower room that TFish helped build there in 2014, the Shuigou villagers applied to for their own solar-powered shower room. After assessments, TFish approved their application and decided to build a solar shower room for them. Thanks to a generous donor, the $2,650 USD needed to fund the shower room was provided.

Shalom Leprosy Compassion Ministry:People with leprosy are sent to isolated villages where they are abandoned and forgotten by society. The Shalom Leprosy Compassion Ministry has a special place in its heart for these people and organizes groups of volunteers to travel to villages plagued with leprosy in order to provide medical, living, and psychological assistance. The Shalom Leprosy Compassion Ministry is located in Kunming, Yunnan.
 
There were less activities in September due to weather and transportation. On Mid-Autumn Day, Shalom organized visits to Shuigou leprosy village of Xundian county and Yang Shaoguang, a leper living with his family in Songming. We also brought festival greetings, gifts and medicines to over 30 lepers.

On September 27, Liang Ping and 3 volunteers visited Shuigou leprosy village. They hoped to bring medical help to the lepers inMid-Autumn Festival. It is an important festival in China. The activity would brought love and warmness of TFish to the lepers.

Liang Ping was giving shoes pads to Lao Hu which had been brought from Japan by Doctor Tongkou, and she also brought antibiotics to him. Liang Ping hoped to give them more help. 

Shalom Leprosy Compassion Ministry:People with leprosy are sent to isolated villages where they are abandoned and forgotten by society. The Shalom Leprosy Compassion Ministry has a special place in its heart for these people and organizes groups of volunteers to travel to villages plagued with leprosy in order to provide medical, living, and psychological assistance. The Shalom Leprosy Compassion Ministry is located in Kunming, Yunnan.

On July 25, Liang Ping and 12 volunteers visited Yimen and provide health examination for 18 lepers. They also brought radios, medicines and some living necessities.

Shalom Leprosy Compassion Ministry:People with leprosy are sent to isolated villages where they are abandoned and forgotten by society. The Shalom Leprosy Compassion Ministry has a special place in its heart for these people and organizes groups of volunteers to travel to villages plagued with leprosy in order to provide medical, living, and psychological assistance. The Shalom Leprosy Compassion Ministry is located in Kunming, Yunnan.

Due to rainy season, we organized 3 visits in August. We visited Aziyin village for twice and Yangquangou village and near village. 17 volunteers provided their services to 16 lepers and 10 people.
 
1. Visit Aziyin village

On August 1, volunteers visited Aziyin village which is about 50 kilometers away from Kunming. Here lives 4 lepers and it takes about 1.5 hours ride. The purpose was to bring some medicine and media players for 4 lepers. Meanwhile, the volunteers also treated Wang Caifeng and other patients’ ulcer as they requested. Wang Caifeng is the main client. She was diagnosed liver damage last year and she had been weak recently. Liang Ping and other volunteers did examination for her and gave her some medicines according to the results.

Volunteers were leaving the village. They would visit the village again soon, sending medicines to Wang Caifeng. Hope the visit would alleviate their pains. On August 23, Liang Ping visited Aziyin village again. He installed a solar-powered equipment for them. Meanwhile, he brought medicines to Wang Caifeng and visited other lepers. It is a battery that receive solar poser which brought light to lepers. They have power at night and they could watch DVD.

2. Visit Yangquangou village and patients living near.

On August 16, Shalom visited the village in response to Uncle Wang who has a patient at home. The purpose was to provide medical help for the lepers living in this area. Chen came and met the volunteers near the village. They would exchange opinions with the patients in the families.

After serving Uncle Wang, the volunteers visited Yangquangou village, bringing medical services and help for the patients here. 

Original article written by Ping Liang, translated by Maggie Li, edited by Yanyan Zhang