VietNamNet Bridge - The Quy Hoa Leprosy Village has 255 houses built by charity organizations for patients. Each house is approximately 40 m2 only, mostly dilapidated but they are still peaceful homes for those who love each other despite illness.

In front of a house with a broken roof and looking to Ghenh Rang sea, Mr. Luong Thanh Tan and his wife - Le Thi Thu - sat side by side to mend their fishing nets, preparing for the night catch. On the front yard, their son - Bin - 6 years old was playing alone with glass balls.

Mr. Luong Thanh Tan and his wife - Le Thi Thu – are always together.

The wedding without relatives

At noon, in the southwest monsoon, even though their house is located on the coast, it was still hot and dry. Sometimes, Tan stopped working to hold a bamboo tape fan to fan for himself and his wife. Sometimes Thu glanced over her husband's feet to see whether any mosquito bites the body part that loses feeling of her husband or not.

"I discovered leprosy when I was 13 years old and my family sent me here for treatment. I grew up in the care of doctors and lepers. At the age of 20, I met Thu. She is also a leprosy patient who did not want to return home for fearing of pity," Tan recalled.

Tan, the man from Thap Cham – Ninh Thuan province, married Thu, a girl from Tam Quan of Binh Dinh province. "Our wedding did not have the participation of any relative, only lepers in Quy Hoa leprosy village," Thu said.

In Quy Hoa leprosy village, residents elected Mr. Tran Cong Nghia as the chief of the Council of Patients. Talking with the leprosy patients here, we know that Nghia is not only an enthusiastic man who is always interested in other people, but also the one who helped change the look of others about leprosy patients.

Nghia is a native of Phan Thiet city, Binh Thuan province. He was brought to this leprosy village for treatment when he was 14 and he has stayed here since then. In these times, hiding his face in a hood to go out, he met Nguyen Thi Hanh - a small trader in Ghenh Rang Ward, Quy Nhon city.

"At that time, the prejudice about leprosy was still very heavy. Hanh’s family vehemently opposed me. I could not how many times that I had to kneel in front of Hanh’s parents to ask for their approval for our marriage. They insisted on denying. They were not only afraid that their daughter can catch the disease from me, but also their daughter would have a hard life if she marries a disabled man like me – with two cramped hands and one leg losing feeling," Nghia recalled.

But finally, Nghia and Hanh overcame the prohibition. "I was determined to come with him. We have to take care of each other, not relying on anyone else," Hanh said.

Being angry with Hanh, her family did not attend the wedding. Nghia did not inform his family about the wedding, so their happy day only had the presence of leprosy patients and some of the bride's closest friends.

Relying on each other

From the dawn, many women in the Quy Hoa lepsory village flocked to the Ghenh Rang wharf to wait for their husbands. At nearly 5am, the fishing boat of Mr. Nguyen Huu Tri arrived at the wharf.

With the left leg losing all toes and feeling because of leprosy, Tri alone cannot push the boat to the beach. His wife, Tran Thi Nguyet, was waiting on the dock, hurriedly helped her husband. Tri carried the nets while Nguyen carried the bundle of fish that her husband caught at night and returned home together. Tri only looked at his wife softly while Nguyet flicked sands on her husband’s back with her hand that lost most of the fingers.

"It is true that couples in Quy Hoa leprosy village live and rely on each other. The wife who lost a hand shares the hard life with the husband who lost a leg. They need each other to survive," said Nghia.

According to Nghia, like normal families, children are the crystallization of love in each nest of leprosy patients. However, to keep the warmth in every roof is not easy. Many children born in the leprosy village had to quit school because they did not dare to cross the Ghenh Rang to go outside for further studies.

The first son of Nghia also suffered from it. But then, the encouragement and the efforts of the parents have gradually erased the complex in their children.

From a few children, now Quy Hoa village has had many children who go to school, even to colleges. "My family has two children who are in college now," Nghia said proudly.

Inside each home, to keep the disease from being transmitted from parents to children is a long and hard process.

"All personal items of Bin are kept far from us to avoid the spread of leprosy via inhalation. But yesterday morning, some redness spots appeared on Bin’s legs and one heel lost feeling. I’m so worried now," said Mrs. Le Thi Thu.

Quiet, fragile

It is a very strange feeling for someone who comes to the Quy Hoa village for the first time. All are silent. The fishing wharfs are usually noisy but here it is very quiet. Villages only say hello in very soft voices. In each house, laughter is only warm enough.

"Everything here is fragile. Love, self-esteem and human life are all fragile. They and we are trying to keep that fragileness from being breakable. So this place is always peaceful," said a doctor of the Quy Hoa Leprosy Hospital.

NLD