More help for lepers

More help for lepers

The articles on leprosy by K. Basrie in The Jakarta Post of
Jan. 29, 1996 were very interesting, yet for me they raised more
questions than they answered. In Jakarta, I remember seeing many
lepers begging at traffic lights and was horrified by their
plight.

K. Basrie's articles are compassion seeking, and I support
them. But he does not give any statistics on leprosy in
Indonesia, nor do we know whether leprosy is being eradicated -
or on the increase. Nor does he tell us how leprosy starts,
whether it is infectious and why it seemingly only afflicts poor
villagers.

One horrific point he does mention is that these poor
sufferers are not looked after by the government. Whilst the
institutions "are heavily subsidized by the government" the
lepers still have to pay Rp 9,000 per month! It saddens me that
the government can authorize millions of dollars for aircraft
development, yet cannot come up with a few million rupiah more
for the lepers.

Come on, let's see a bit more compassion from the government,
at least for the chronically ill who have no way of providing for
themselves. Why not also some sort of disability pension, so that
cured lepers and other chronically disabled people will be
encouraged to go back to their homes, or even to try to seek
employment - in the knowledge that they are not going to be a
financial burden to others.

Finally, there should be an NGO to lobby for government funds
as well as public donations; and a program bring about the
understanding that recovered lepers are no different than anyone
else.

I hope action can be taken to create more public awareness of
this terrible disease.

DAVID J BOOTH

Sanur, Bali