International leprosy day: Leprosy took my youth and how I rose to heal

Leprosy is not only a disease that attacks the body, but can destabilize the minds of those who are infected.

A patient and person who has experienced leprosy told BBC Indonesia how this disease, also known as leprosy, had taken away their youth and how their spirits could rise again and recover.

Geby Ataupah (20), a girl in Kupang Regency, East Nusa Tenggara, admitted that she was devastated when leprosy attacked her.

For years, Geby felt the symptoms before it was confirmed that it was leprosy, which made him paralyzed when he was in the third grade of high school and could not go to school.

“Almost Geby could not continue school because of this disease. Geby had dropped out of school for one semester,” he said.

Practically Geby could not get along with his friends because leprosy had paralyzed the joints in his hands and feet, making him unable to walk before undergoing intensive treatment at the leprosy hospital.

Not only Geby, who is currently undergoing a recovery phase. Uswatun Khasanah (24) still remembers well how his confidence was torn when he was attacked by leprosy ten years ago, when he was still in the second grade of junior high school in Losari, Cirebon.

He admitted that he was “shocked to the point of despair and did not want to go to school” when leprosy began to paralyze his physical condition as a teenager, causing his friends to shun him.

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