After Anong Kerdhung was diagnosed with leprosy, the first thought that crossed his mind was that he wished to no longer exist.
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"I was thinking of committing suicide," Anong recalled. At the age of 22, he was found to be infected with the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae, which causes leprosy.
Before his diagnosis, the now-55-year-old was working as a tractor driver at construction sites in the southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat, earning a monthly wage of up to 30,000 baht. When his disease progressed and his nerve damage worsened, he was forced to quit his job and move in with his mother, who ran a grocery store in the neighbourhood.
Anong's symptoms became more obvious and soon he did not want to live under his mother's roof anymore. "I was worried I would disgust the customers and they would be afraid to buy things from the shop."
To avoid social stigma and prejudice, Anong decided to move to Nakhon Si Thammarat's Phud Hong Leper Colony, one of the few public sanctuaries for leprosy patients in Thailand. Leper colonies are scattered around the country, in places such as Chanthaburi, Nan, Chiang Rai, Maha Sarakham, Surin, Roi Et and Khon Kaen.
Unlike some with physical disabilities, Anong does not want to be dependent on others. Despite his left leg having been amputated back in 1989 because of the disease, he became the leper colony's shoemaker.
"At first, I was here only to help the former shoemaker with this and that," said Anong at the Phud Hong Leper Colony Shoemaking Facility, a tiny single-storey house located on the colony's compound. "Then I gradually learned shoemaking techniques from him. Later he died, so I took over his job as the colony's only shoemaker and shoe repairman."
Anong’s tools, much of which he gets for free from the colony and neighbours.
In Thailand, leprosy is a forgotten disease, and there are very few people like Anong who can earn a living, given that lepers are treated with social disdain due to their physical deformity and the public's fear of getting infected. But fortunately, the prevalence of leprosy is getting lower. Statistics from the Ministry of Public Health's Department of Disease Control revealed last year that there were 155 new leprosy patients countrywide, a sharp drop compared to the 405 new cases found in 2010. Currently there are over 520 patients registered for treatment in Thailand. In July 2013, 17 countries came together at the International Leprosy Summit held in Bangkok to commit to a global target of less than one new leprosy case per million people by 2020 through the Bangkok Declaration. The declaration recommends measures such as including leprosy-affected persons in the leprosy-control initiatives. And in response to this, the Ministry of Public Health has set its target at less than 100 new cases, also by 2020.
In the meantime, lepers are still struggling to cope with social discrimination, said Anong. Even though the public attitude toward lepers has slightly changed for the better, at the end of the day leprosy patients still do not receive total understanding from people living outside the colony.
"No one wants to enter the colony, for fear of contracting the disease. So we hardly get assistance or a charity visit from people outside," said the shoemaker.
To make a living, Anong offers shoemaking and shoe-fixing services mostly for lepers inside Phud Hong colony. His job, he said, is far more complicated than it looks, given that most lepers suffer foot deformities that require customised shoes.
"No one person is the same when it comes to handling shoes for lepers," explained Anong, who wears a prosthetic left leg he received from the Raj Pracha Samasai Institute in Samut Prakan. The institute was founded in 1923 to investigate and care for people affected by the disease. "Some come with leg-length discrepancy. Others have disfigured toes or no toes at all. So for health and walking comfort, everyone's feet must be precisely measured so that their shoes will not cause any adverse health effects."
Presently, there are 135 lepers at the Phud Hong Leper Colony. Nine deaths have been reported during the past two years. This explains why Anong saw a slow decline in terms of the number of customers year after year, which in turn affects his income.
"I do not charge a lot for a service fee. Repairing a pair of shoes, for example, costs 10 baht. So I earn around 2,500 baht a month as a shoemaker. It doesn't sound like a lot of money but this is how I can take care of myself," he said. Anong also receives financial aid of a few thousand baht from the state, as well as assistance for food and daily-life necessities from the Bangkok-based Phud Hong Leper Foundation.
With only one leg left, Anong is a living proof of a person who does not let physical disability become a life barricade. He wants other disabled to think likewise.
"I'm just trying to be of use," he said. "I provide the service to other lepers who might find it inconvenient to travel outside the colony due to both physical and transportation-related limitations. It also means I'm not a burden on other people. There are many who are poorer and less privileged than me. I'm still able to walk, so I have to try my best to take care of myself.
"I wish I could be born with no sickness in the next life. But until that time, I will be the colony's shoemaker until my last breath."
Visit http://www.bangkokpost.com/vdo for the video of this story.
INFO FOR DONATIONS
Name of organisation: Phud Hong Leper Foundation
Address: Bangkok Post, 136 Na Ranong Road, Klong Toey, Bangkok 10110Tel: 081-900-4922; Fax: 02-240-3679
Bank transfer:
ACCOUNT NAME: Phud Hong Leper Foundation,
Account No. 218-0-13367-6, Bangkok Bank, Sunthorn Kosa Branch, Klong Toey, Bangkok.
CHEQUE: Send cheque payable to Phud Hong Leper Foundation, Attn: Kusuma Bekenn, Phud Hong Leper Foundation, Bangkok Post Building, 136 Na Ranong, Klong Toey, Bangkok 10110
Fax pay-in or transfer slip with donor's address and telephone contact to fax number 02-240-3660, attention Kusuma Bekenn, Phud Hong Leper Foundation, for receipts. The donation is tax-deductible.
Representative from Phud Hong Leper Foundation Kusuma Bekenn presents donated items to a leprosy patient at Phud Hong Leper Colony.
