Fighting against Stigmatization of Lepers

Fr. Campbell, the 'Leper Priest'

The Lepers Aid Committee on Sunday, January 27, 2013 marked World Leprosy Day with the inmates of the Nkanchina No. 2 Leprosarium at Kpandai in the Tamale Archdiocese led by Very Rev. Fr. Andrew Campbell, Svd, (Nii Lante) who has been championing the cause of lepers in Ghana over the years.

Nkanchina No. 2 is a farming Community in the Kpandai District in the Northern, which is mainly dominated by cured lepers, who come to seek treatment. The villagers live in deplorable conditions as they lack basic social amenities such as water, electricity, education and quality health care.

The only stream in the community is what the villagers fall on for drinking, bathing and cooking. The only health facility in

During the celebration, Fr. Campbell reiterated his call to the country in general and families in particular to accept and integrate cured lepers into their midst. He was of the opinion that such integration would complement and add value to work going on at the leprosarium where fine efforts are being made to cure lepers.

“If society continues to reject the healed lepers, it has far reaching consequences on what is going on at the leprosarium. Let us remove the stigmatization the lepers go through,” Fr. Campbell emphasized.

This year's World Leprosy Day was under the theme: 'The Old has Passed Away, Behold the New has Come' (2 Corinthians 5;17). World Leprosy Day is observed internationally on the last Sunday of every January to increase the public awareness of the disease.

The day was chosen in commemoration of the death of Gandhi, the leader of India, who understood the importance of leprosy. Leprosy is one of the oldest recorded diseases in the world. It is an infectious chronic disease that targets the nervous system, especially the nerves in the cooler parts of the body - the hands, feet, and face.

Ghana has about 10,000 cured and about 2,500 active lepers. Those who are active are on drugs to halt the disease's ravages. Those who are cured cannot infect others but, on account of their scars, are still stigmatised.

Current government policy aims to reintegrate these cured lepers back into society and challenge people to recognize that these are Ghanaians with the same rights as anyone else.

Fr. Campbell, who is the Committee Chairman of Lepers Aid Committee, said that most people neglect lepers because they see them as outcast and urged all to show love and compassion to them since they were human beings and deserve to be treated as such.

He bemoaned the stigmatization and discrimination against cured lepers in Ghana and called on the citizenry to respect the rights of lepers.He assured the lepers that the District Assembly Common Fund had promise to pay GH¢15 per week for each leper for six months and build a concrete house for them as part of their contribution to support the lepers.

Through visitations to offices in Ghana to discuss the deplorable conditions of lepers in the country, Fr. Campbell said President John Mahama responded by making a donation.He said President Mahama made the donation because of the love and care he has for the less privilege in society and urged all corporate bodies to also extend their love to the lepers in kind.

Mr. Daniel Kamballa, who represented the District Chief Executive in Kpandai, thanked all who helped in supporting the lepers, adding that the Assembly would work with the Lepers Aid Committee to support them in the community. He enumerated some of the challenges facing the community such as health facilities, portable water, bad roads, electricity and education and called on government to come to their aid.

Mr. Charles Kwame Bawa, a leper, thanked all who supported them and pray for strength and health for President Mahama to lead the country.

The main focus of Fr. Campbell's social work apart Priesthood has been Weija Cured Lepers Rehabilitation Centre, about five miles from the capital, Accra. Although cured of the disease, the men and women who live there bear the signs of its mutilations and as a result have over the years been shunned by society. But bit by bit, fear seems to be giving way to a more charitable and enlightened attitude.

Over the years, Fr. Campbell had been working tirelessly to support lepers in the country. Last year, 2012, he bemoaned the poor infrastructural state of the Weija leprosarium in Accra, which is making life difficult for the inmates.

“It's pathetic to note that the walls of the toilets have cracks in them coupled with broken pipes in the bath houses. No light for security purposes and in the evening the rooms are overcrowded. Also our property is not fenced making us vulnerable to thieves.”

He said the Lepers Aid Committee had also constructed a multi-skill training centre for the Ho Leprosarium at the cost of GH¢67,011.90, which was commissioned in December 2011.

Father Campbell assured organisations supporting the cured lepers' project that their monies and contributions would be used to improve on the living standards of the inmates. He said the Committee took full responsibility for the Weija Leprosarium, adding it had supported in the past, the Ho, Nkanchina, Kokofu, Anindado and Ahontokrom Leprosaria in Ghana.

Fr. Campbell appealed to Government to increase the 26 pesewas per day given to each inmate of the Weija Leprosarium and called on corporate entities to support the construction projects with cements, blocks, roofing sheets, mosquito nets, nails, ply-woods, roofing sheets, sand, stones, iron rods and pipes.

For lepers in Ghana, especially in Accra, the capital, 54-year-old Irish born catholic priest, the Reverend Father Andrew Campbell, is their hero, friend and saviour."Father Campbell is a very good man. He treats us with dignity," said Seth Agyekum, a 76-year-old inmate of the Weija Cured Leprosy Patients Rehabilitation Centre just outside the heart of Ghana's capital

"Look at the buildings which are being painted. It is the work of Father Campbell. They have free food and do not pay water and electricity bills. They have clothes," added David Mensah, warden of the centre.

Indeed, father Campbell's work has been appreciated even by former President Jerry Rawlings who decorated him with one of Ghana's highest honours, Grand medal Honorary Division this month (January).

Not only lepers appreciate Father Campbell, but health workers and members of society do as well. He preaches the integration of lepers into society and their treatment with dignity.

He is horrified that lepers are treated like third class citizens, and describes the act "a terrible thing". "These people have rights and have to be taken care of," he told the Pan African News Agency (PANA) in an article by Mawusi Afele.

"These people have to be treated with dignity. The notion that once a leper always a leper is not true," he said.

According to the article, Father Campbell said the old Biblical notion that lepers should be kept well of town and bells put around them to announce their arrival so that the rest of society avoids them must not hold true today.

Born in Dublin, Ireland, on 27th March, 1946, he attended Kindergaten at Sisters of Charity School and de la Salle Primary School, both in Dublin.

"My parents could not afford to send me to secondary school, so at the age of 13 years, I worked as a van delivery boy," he said. Father Campbell said he subsequently saved enough money and entered secondary school.

He studied philosophy and theology and through hard work and dedication, obtained his bachelor of Divinity degree from St. Patrick's College in the United Kingdom in October 1970.

In December 1970, he was ordained into the Catholic Priesthood.

Fr. Campbell arrived in Ghana in October 1971 as a Missionary Priest in the Society of the Divine Word and has worked in several Parishes - Osu, Holy Spirit Cathedral, Sacred Heart, all in Accra.His activities are not only limited to the area of rehabilitating lepers.

In 1978, he opened the Sacred Heart Paris Middle School in Accra and two years later, founded and opened the Sacred Heart Vocational Institute for poor and needy students in Accra Central.

He added that through the help of benefactors and friends, he has sponsored many needy and poor students each year through primary, junior secondary school, senior secondary school and the university.

His work is also serving the ageing, as he is a founding member of Help Age Ghana, an NGO that cares for old people.

Fr. Campbell has worked tirelessly, through the Leper's Aid Committee to bring happiness to lepers. Every year, he holds an awards night where individuals and organisations that have helped the committee are honoured.

"As Christians, our wealth must be the poor. When you see them at the centre they are happy. They have to be treated with dignity."

Father Campbell always underscores the need to integrate lepers into society.

That may be a long time away, but his target would be achieved quicker once the disease is eradicated in Ghana.

Fr. Campbell is an Irish who has been in Ghana for over 40 years acquiring the name Nii Lantey in the process. His role model happens to be Mother Theresa and has adapted her renowned motto Do Something Beautiful for God, a motto that has served as a booster to this man's generosity.

His key goal in life is to help lepers, children and the less privileged in society – gaining nationwide acknowledgment for his support for people living with or cured of Hansen's disease in Ghana.

To Fr. Campbell, he sees the offers from benevolent people as goodwill gestures towards one of the most marginalized sections of Ghanaian society.

According to him, such public displays of solidarity are about rehabilitating Ghana's lepers and breaking down the prejudice that makes outcasts of them.

“I first encountered a leper when a man came to the Holy Spirit Cathedral some years ago to sell mangoes. I was frightened and didn't know how to react.” In the years that followed, Fr Campbell began to take an active interest in the plight of these people, and he noticed how they were treated, even by medical staff at the hospitals.

“I have heard horrendous stories about the way they have been treated by nurses.” If medical staff react in this way, it is not surprising that the general public should display even greater ignorance.

“I saw one case recently and I have never seen the likes of it before. This woman had been kept in her village and her family hadn't brought her for medical attention because of the stigma attached to the disease. She was in a most awful condition. This is such a pity because if the leprosy is caught in the early stages, it might only be affecting a small patch of skin.”

However, he believes Ghana, through church initiatives and government-led policies, is now beginning to handle the plight of lepers in a more compassionate manner. He actively champions the rights of lepers within his own parish, often inviting them to services where they are given the place of honour.

“At Christmastime we have a Christmas tree on the altar and we put small pieces of paper on string with all the names of the lepers as well as the names of the old people from the Missionaries of Charity's home nearby and the names of the AIDS patients and the AIDS orphans. We call it a love tree and everybody in the church is asked to take a slip of paper with one of those names on it and buy a Christmas present for that person. We then deliver the present on Christmas Eve.”

As a result of his lobbying, a number of government ministers have lent their public support to his work.

Fr Campbell himself has in the past been decorated by former President Jerry Rawlings for his work with the lepers, as well as other long-term projects, such as the Princess Marie Louise Hospital for malnourished children and the vocational school he founded in 1980 to teach disadvantaged children skills like carpentry and more recently computers.

Another project he involved in was the development of land in the shadow of a dam built close to one of the out-stations of his parish in Tema. It is hoped that villagers will be able to make a living from cultivating the plots of land they are allotted.

The government in Ghana is anxious that lepers should no longer be relegated to begging on the streets and now pays them a daily subsidy.

Despite the poor state of Ghana's economy, Fr Campbell believes that some improvement can be made in the state subsidy to lepers and that charitable donations and fundraising have to play a part too.

“I'm called 'the leper priest' and have been told I'm a perpetual beggar!” With the money he has raised, Fr Andy has got a number of initiatives underway aimed at giving lepers a skill in order to help them make some money for themselves. “We have set up a mill in the leprosarium in Accra and in about four other places in Ghana, where the men and women get paid for grinding corn.” Other projects include a soap-making venture, mat-making and there are plans to set up a poultry farm, in addition to dress-making for those who still have functioning fingers.

In all this work, Fr Campbell is assisted by members of the Lepers Aid Committee, which has a high quota of young students. “My emphasis has always been that if you want to work with young people and talk about religion – then you have to practice it.”

When asked why the lepers are so close to his heart he answers without hesitation, “If you are ever feeling down and out and you go to see the lepers, you'll come back a different person. They have so much hope and they are grateful for the little they have materially. I see them as a sign of hope and encouragement – a blessing for our society. They are our treasure because they bring out the good in other people.”

Coming from a home that faced financial hardship, he has started foundations for the construction of a theatre and an intensive care unit of the Princess Marie Louise Children's Hospital in Accra.

In what one may say was a risky move, Fr. Campbell volunteered to come to Ghana as a Missionary priest at the age of twenty five spending 13 days on the high seas to get to Ghana.

This noble man also set a record by being the highest winner on the TV show, Who Wants To Be Rich, by winning a record GH¢25,000, just an answer short of the ultimate. Interestingly, he donated the money to the leprosarium.

For the celebration of World Leprosy Day, Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, President of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers, published a message entitled: "A Fitting Occasion for Intensifying the Service of Charity". In the text of the document, the Archbishop noted that Hansen's disease is "a malady that is as old as it is grave when we consider the suffering, the social exclusion and the poverty that [it] involves".

"According to the most recent data of the WHO," the message states, "about 220,000 people, men, women and children, contracted leprosy in 2011 and many of these new cases were diagnosed when the disease was at an advanced stage.

These data demonstrate the continuation, notwithstanding the praiseworthy action of international and national, governmental and non-governmental, institutions, such as the WHO and the Raoul Follereau Foundation and the Sasakawa Foundation, of a still insufficient level of access to centres that offer diagnoses and of a lack of education as regards prevention in communities that run the risk of contagion, as well as the need for specifically designed medico-hygienic initiatives.

All of this is fundamental in the case of leprosy, which by now does not lead to death if it is suitably treated, as it is the case, to a greater extent, of the other 'neglected diseases' ... These are pathologies that constitute authentic scourges in some parts of the world but which do not receive sufficient attention from the international community; amongst these pathologies we find dengue fever, sleeping sickness, bilharziosis, onchocerciasis, leishmaniasis, and trachoma."

"In the face of such a health-care emergency, in the light of the Year of Faith as well, and with the wish to commit ourselves increasingly intensely, as Catholics, to carrying out what Jesus requested by his commandment 'Euntes docete et curate infirmos' and by our baptism, I wish to renew my invitation to work to ensure that this Sixtieth World Leprosy Day constitutes a new 'fitting occasion for intensifying the service of charity in our ecclesial communities, so that each one of us can be a good Samaritan for others, for those close to us'."

"An equally important role should also be played by all those people who are victims of leprosy, who are called to cooperate in the establishment of a more inclusive and just society that will allow the integration of those people who have been cured of leprosy; in spreading and promoting its forms of diagnosis and treatment; in stressing the need to receive therapies so as to be cured, thereby contributing to a weakening of the disease; and in distributing those medico-hygienic criteria that are indispensable to hindering its further propagation in the contexts to which they belong."

"As a Christian, a person who has been afflicted by leprosy also has the possibility of living his or her condition in a perspective of faith, 'finding meaning through union with Christ, who suffered with infinite love', praying and offering up his or her suffering for the good of the Church and humanity. In awareness that what has been emphasised is certainly not easy, and requires charity towards themselves and their neighbours, hope, courage, patience and determination, I would like to observe, employing the words of St. Paul, that none of us 'received a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear': we have 'received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, "Abba, Father!"'.

And, 'if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him'. Even in the most adverse situations, a Christian is not certain that 'nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord'," concludes the text by Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski.

Fr. Campbell with some cured lepers of Weija receiving a donation from a philanthropist.

Some cured lepers at Nkanchina Leprosarium