To educate, challenge and involve the people of Northern Ireland in the Christ-like and unique mission of The Leprosy Mission worldwide, and to contribute to its overall operations and development.
The Leprosy Mission NI
Lagan House,
Queen's Road,
Lisburn
BT27 4TZ
t: +44 (0)28 9262 9500
e: info@tlm-ni.org
Aslam Mahomed
Aslam Mahomed is 14, but somehow he seems much older. It could just be that he has watched his father lose his dignity to alcohol and that he knows his mother needs to trudge from village to village trying to sell tiny parcels of salt; somehow she must strive to keep her family together. Aslam has some older brothers, one rides a rickshaw a second accompanies truck drivers: a sort of shotgun rider. That second brother, Isahak, is with him at Anandaban Hospital. He too shows the effects of leprosy, but it is Aslam who has come for surgery. Aslam had leprosy about two years ago, but although he completed the treatment, the disease left him with a paralyzed right hand. "I can't write because the pen falls from my hand, anyway I don’t go to school anymore", he suddenly looks embarrassed, but quickly tells me that he has 5 friends. “I want my hand to be fixed because I want to work to help my mother. If my hand is good maybe I can work in a factory, as a laborer.” I glance at his face. It’s bright with a broad smile that leaves me wandering just how many 14 year old boys aspire to being a laborer. Smiles can be very chastening.
I ask him how he enjoys being at Anandaban because his home is on the Eastern border of the country, at least 16 hours away by bus. Where he lives the people have a different culture, they speak a different language. As I ask he makes an almost instinctive move to grab his elder brother’s arm, “this place is very nice, but I don’t want to stay here alone, without my brother, I would miss my family and friends too much, like Chamani” (another young boy, crying on the stairs; Chamani is homesick). Aslam looks at Chamani just a little too long to retain his smile.