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St.
Stephen's Chapel |
St Stephen's Chapel Visit to the Liangshan Leprosy Project
5-10 May 2008
Participants: Will Newman, Jenya Hayhoe, Liz Kemp, Tessa Walker, Hugh and Linda Rogers
(This was Liz’s 3rd visit, Will & Jenya’s 2nd, and Tessa, Linda & Hugh’s 1st visit.)
We visited the Centre in the city of Xichang, and two villages we’ve been to before, Xide (the village we ‘adopted’, and where Dot painted a mural with the schoolchildren last year), and Puge; and one village that’s only just become part of the project, Yanbian.
The general aim of the visit was to see what progress has been made since our first visit, and to introduce the project to those who hadn’t been before. Activities planned (particularly in Xide) included discussions on setting up an embroidery cooperative, assessment of plans for delivering clean water to the villagers, helping with a Fun Day for the schoolchildren, and filming for publicity and fundraising.
Thanks to Sally and the Project Team we enjoyed a successful visit.
We saw several Pals (People Afflicted with Leprosy) we had seen before, and it was very encouraging that in almost all cases they are in much better physical shape than 2 years ago. This is basically down to the project, and the dedicated work of the staff.
We found an extensive building programme with government funding for new roads and new houses. It was very encouraging to see that the local government seems at last to be taking an interest in the leprosy villages. However, some of the villagers are giving up their land to move down the hill, and there is some concern about their livelihood.
In Yanbian, which is essentially an old folks’ home for disabled people who have had leprosy, we were concerned both at the lack of facilities and at the stifling boredom. There is work to be done here.
In Puge we saw the new health centre built by the project, and now being used by both Pals and non-leprosy patients. We saw one Pal we’d seen before, who may need an amputation. We agreed that St Stephen’s would pay if it goes ahead.
The Sichuan Earthquake took place two days after our visit. Fortunately for the villagers Liangshan was not in the earthquake zone, so they were not directly affected. We await news on whether government funds and projects in Liangshan will be affected by the needs of the earthquake victims.
The following points were noted to the Chapel Committee :
- With government spending promised on water supplies, some of the money we have already donated to the project, which was earmarked for providing water supplies and sanitation in Xide, may be spent for other purposes.
- The progress made in many areas is very good to see, and shows that the project is working. However, to date, the project is able to operate in only 7 out of 16 leprosy villages in the Liangshan area. There still remains a great deal of work to do.
- Liz will be leaving Hong Kong at the end of the summer, returning to the UK. She will still visit HK from time to time, but she won’t be around to champion the Liangshan Leprosy Project at St Stephen’s as she has done ever since that first visit we made two years ago.
Full details of the visit are included in Liz Kemp’s report (available from the Chapel Office)
Will
3rd June 2008