Transparent Fish Fund
  • Home
  • Projects
  • Track
  • Blog
  • How It Works
    • About Us
    • Annual Reports
    • Get Involved
    • Grant Application
    • Media
    • FAQs
    • Contact Us
  • Donate

​Yunnan Leprosy:  A Leprosy Village

11/18/2016

 
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.
Picture
Leprosy village located in a beautiful but isolated area

​Yiliang County’s leprosy village stands isolated from the other part of the county in a remote area. This leprosy village was constructed in 1975. During the time of the establishment, the original village had more than 50 leprosy patients. However, most of them died due to illness and other reasons. In June 2016, the village had only three remaining leprosy patients: a man named Li Shiyou, Yang Xiaosuo, and a man named Qiu Youxi.
The leprosy villages are mostly located in remote, inaccessible, and sparsely populated areas, since the intention of the village is to prevent other people from coming into contact with the lepers' infection. The leprosy patients are isolated from the outside word so that their daily lives can be more convenient and they can better accommodate the requests of the doctors or nurses. Outsiders cannot enter without permission. They would not dare to enter the rehabilitation village; even those who walk on the same route avoid the leprosy village and take caution to not speak ill of the people there.
Picture
The village had only three remaining leprosy patients
Picture
Dr. Liang Ping often visits the village
Picture
Liang Ping sent Li Shiyou to the hospital
Li Shiyou came to the village when he was 18 years old. He is now over 50 years old and is the youngest of the trio. He is responsible for grocery shopping, since the other two are 70 year old men, old and feeble. Inspired by Dr. Liang Ping, I participated in the care team that visited the leprosy villages, providing volunteer services for these leprosy patients.

I remember the first time I went to visit with a South American team. I helped them carry firewood from the mountains. A leprosy patient named Jiaoxu shared his sad story with us. (He has since passed away.) When he was little and was diagnosed with leprosy, he was expelled from the village and isolated in a cave a few miles away outside the village. He had to endure the loneliness and physical torture during that time.  The government gave him five kilograms of corn a month as rations. Such a cold and hungry lifestyle damaged his health, hands, and feet, resulting in a large area of disability.

Later, the government built a leprosy hospital. The villagers were then quick to kick out the leprosy patients from their village. These ill people, however, were very grateful to the government for building them a home where they could live in peace. A few years later, many of the patients died one after another. Later, the government retrieved the doctors who were sent to the village. From then on, the villagers could only depend on doctors who were sent once a month by the government.
Picture
Picture
Later, Dr. Liang Ping and other foreign institutions began to visit the leprosy village and provide medical treatment for them. In addition to providing a service of care, they all ate together to make the villagers feel happier. They are most pleased that the doctor still often thinks of them by regularly helping treat their ulcers and disease, buying a refrigerator and other gadgets to make their lives more convenient. The refrigerator enabled the villagers to buy more food so that they do not have to go on a crowded bus to go shopping. The buses often discriminate against the leprosy patients, and they are not allowed on the trains either. Last year when Laoli became sick, Dr. Liang Ping realized that he was the only one who helped the Laoqiu couple by groceries and rice. So the doctor brought him to a hospital in hopes that he could recover faster.
 
The patients living here get about 300 RMB ($45 USD) a month; on holidays they sometimes get more. The villagers spend this money to buy rice, oil, salt, and daily necessities, in addition to medicine and clothing. The monthly subsistence only meets their basic needs. But because the patients are frail, and basically no one but Dr. Liang sees them, no one else pays attention or visits them. We hope more people will contribute a little love to these kind patients who are in much need of care, especially the physically disabled and frail!

Original article written by Ping Liang, translated by Nina Chen, edited by Yanyan Zhang and Carolyn D.

Comments are closed.

    TFISH FUND BLOG

    We update news and reports directly from the field written by our NGO partners 

    DONATE NOW

    Top Posts

    1. Winter Coats Distribution in Gansu
    2. Water Reservoir at Zhengjia Elementary
    3. Adonai Child Rehabilitation Mid-Year Grant Report
    4. Water Wells Project in Vietnam
    5. LRS Follow Up with Caiping

    PHOTOS & VIDEOS

    Picture

    IN THE NEWS

    • Little Red Scarf, Stanford Journal of Public Health
    • TFish Lab, China Weekly

    Categories

    All
    1001 Fontaines
    ACR
    Albinism Home
    Albinism Home
    Allianz Mission
    Anhui Farmers Cooperative
    Annual Report
    Awareness Event
    Bayshore
    Behcet Association
    Bird Home
    Bird Home
    BJ Behcet
    Blog Topic
    Blue Sky
    Bo'Ai Humanitarian Team
    Boya
    Burma Humanitarian Mission
    Caidie
    Changing Young Lives
    Changzhou Volunteers
    Chao Foundation
    Chengdu University Public Welfare Association
    Chengdu Volunteers
    Children On The Edge
    China Cal
    Clover Youth
    Daba Council
    Dandelion
    Design That Matters
    Dingxi Loving
    Disaster Relief
    DloHaiti
    D-Starine
    Du'an
    Due Diligence Visit
    East Villagers
    Event Recap
    Events
    Everydayheroes
    Fall Campaign 2014
    Fangzhou
    Field Visit
    Fundraiser
    Gansu Care
    Gansu Micro Loans
    Grant Report
    Green Olive
    Green Wind
    Heart To Heart Center
    Hefei Happy Childhood
    Helping Orphans Worldwide
    Hemophilia Home
    Henan Volunteers
    Heyue Free Library
    HIS Foundation
    HIS Foundation
    Home Of Chivalrous People
    Hongshan Street Disable Service Center
    Hope Volunteer Association
    ICC
    Intern Updates
    In The Community
    ISeek
    Jian’ai Art
    Jiaozuo Education Aid Association
    Jinshui Service Center
    Lanzhou Greenland
    Lianhu Thousands Love
    Light Of Love
    Little Bee
    Little Sapling
    Longwan Caring Home
    Longwan Home
    Longxing Public Welfare Association
    Loving Public Welfare Association
    LRS
    Lrs Care
    Lrs Summer Camp
    Lrs Surgery
    Magnolia
    Mianyang Public Welfare Forum
    Mianzhu Family
    Mianzhu Heart To Heart Charity Team
    Migrant Art School
    Migrant Art School
    Migrant School
    Mingda School
    Miscellaneous
    Mrs. Zhou
    Mulan Community Activity Center
    Myasthenia Gravis Care Association
    Nanjing Foster Service Center For Disabled People
    Nayong Loving
    Nayong Loving
    New Project Partnership
    Newsletter
    Okeefe
    One Heart World Wide
    Organizing Capacity Building Center
    Orphan Impact
    Overseas Volunteer Team Of Beijing University
    Panda Care
    Pok Oi Team
    Press
    Press Release
    Project Updates
    Rainbow Village
    Rcef
    Rural Experts
    Sahaya
    Sarta Volunteer Association
    SEAPC
    Senior Center
    Shanquan Youth Public Welfare Development Center
    Shenzhen Friendship Community Services Center
    Shenzhen Pengbo
    Simple Scholarships
    Soul Of Life
    Spine China
    Spring Center
    Star Hope Special Education
    Stepping Stones
    Taiwan Labor Concern
    Taiwan Prison Ministry
    Taiwan Root
    Testimonial
    Tfish China
    Tfish Events
    Tfish Fund
    Tfish Volunteers
    Thank You Letter
    Tianlai Speech Therapy Center
    Tribal Poverty Relief
    Vietnamese Christian Rehabilitation Ministry
    Vietnamese Laborers Ministry
    Vietnam Missions
    Volunteer Association Of Tai’an City
    Warm Love Home
    Wild Lily
    WTO
    Xi’an Heart To Heart Community Service Center
    Xi'an Volunteers
    Yangling Environment Protection Association
    Yichang Civil Public Students
    Yinfeng Loving Service Team
    Yongning Students
    Youth Social Responsibility Center
    Yu Disability
    Yunmeng Volunteers Association
    Yunnan
    Yunnan Care
    Yunnan Leprosy Village
    Yurun Micro Public Good Alliance
    ZOE

    Archives

    September 2024
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    June 2011

    RSS Feed

© Copyright 2011. All rights reserved.
171 Main St. #658 , Los Altos, CA 94022  | [email protected] | 501(c)(3) Tax ID: 45-2885139
  • Home
  • Projects
  • Track
  • Blog
  • How It Works
    • About Us
    • Annual Reports
    • Get Involved
    • Grant Application
    • Media
    • FAQs
    • Contact Us
  • Donate