Friend of Leprosy Survivors

KOMPAS/SOELASTRI SOEKIRNO

The initiator of the Indonesian Leprosy Care Community (LCC), Yuta Takashima (second left), poses for a photograph with former leprosy patients in Liposos Donorejo, Jepara regency, Central Java, in August.

While most people distance themselves from those who have leprosy, Takashima Yuta, 29, gets close and interacts with them. He left behind a comfortable life in Japan to fight the stigmatization that leprosy survivors face in Indonesia.

It has been nine years since Yuta started interacting with leprosy survivors, many of whom are often alienated. For Yuta, leprosy survivors are just like him, healthy people. In August 2018, he visited the Social House for the Disabled (Liposos) Donorojo, in Jepara, Central Java.

He proved to be popular among the inhabitants of the house. The leprosy survivors, who are usually hesitant to touch “healthy people”, welcomed Yuta with open arms. Yuta, who is usually taciturn, talked a lot and laughed with them.

Yuta has become very close to the leprosy survivors, who are poor and isolated, which is why he struggles to improve their lives.

Yuta did not come alone. He brought with him 16 students (eight from Japan and eight from Indonesia) to live at Liposos with the leprosy survivors. They are volunteers from the Leprosy Care Community (LCC) Indonesia, a community Yuta set up.

Along with Yuta, they helped construct a 40-meter-long water channel over 10 days. They worked from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Yuta instructed the student volunteers, who had no experience working with former leprosy patients. Under a scorching sun, they prepared sand and cement, mixed them and did other things.

The young man from Kagawa, Japan, actively invites people to interact with the leprosy survivors in the hope that people will no longer alienate them.

Most people have difficulty accepting leprosy survivors, who generally have an irreversible disability. Some people believe leprosy is a curse. Others are afraid they might be infected if in close proximity with lepers. In fact, the scale of infection of leprosy is very low. If a person has been cured of leprosy, they can no longer spread the disease.

Public rejection prompted them to isolate themselves and create a colony of leprosy survivors. They make a living from a field provided by the government. Consequently, most of them are poor because they either beg or are informal workers.

Leaving Japan

Yuta started interacting with lepers while accompanying executives of the Friends International Workcamp Committee (FIWC) Japan who were attending a conference on leprosy in Jakarta. The committee took participants to the Sitanala Hospital for leprosy in Tangerang, Banten.

During the visit, Yuta learned that leprosy patients not only suffered from the disease but also from stigmatization. Their suffering touched Yuta profoundly. In 2009, he decided to return to Sitanala, bringing his savings of around Rp 50 million. He abandoned his studies at Osaka University and stayed at a former lepers\' village near the hospital.

There, he helped lift the optimism of the leprosy survivors. Then he started to involve others. He went to the University of Indonesia’s School of Cultural Studies and talked to students about becoming volunteers. “At that time, I did not know a single student,” he said.

Several students were willing to become volunteers. In the same year, Yuta and some students formed LCC Indonesia. In 2010, for the first time LCC organized a work camp in Nganget village, Tuban, East Java. There, the community lived in a village inhabited by leprosy survivors.

The program continued and involved students from universities in Surabaya, Malang, Semarang and Yogyakarta. He also involved some Japanese students. Eight to12 Japanese students come to Indonesia each year for LCC.

Aside from visiting the people, Yuta and the volunteers also build facilities, such as pavements or water channels. The funds come from the Sasakawa Memorial Health Foundation, Japan, which regularly provides funding. To save money, Yuta, the volunteers and residents do any construction work.

In order to make the activities known to the public, Yuta and LCC volunteers discuss activities on social media. They also conducted an exhibition to campaign for an end to discrimination against leprosy patients and survivors.

Valuable lesson

Since he was at senior high school, Yuta has wanted to make an impact. He was inspired by Cuban socialist leader Che Guevara. He has realized his dream by doing social work.

In 2008, he went to China as a FIWC volunteer. He met Long Mei Hoa, a leprosy survivor. Hoa, an old woman, and other leprosy survivors lived on an isolated hill in Heku village, Hunan.

“I was shocked to see the condition of the leprosy survivors. I was stunned into silence for several days,” he said.

He decided to accompany and assist Hoa for 10 months, an experience that opened his eyes wide. “Ibu Hoa taught me to accept other people unconditionally. She never asked who I was. She accepted me for who I am,” Yuta said.

When he left Heku village for Japan, Yuta promised to practice what Hoa taught him. “That’s what made me return to Sitanala, Nganget, Mojokerto, Blora and Donorojo,” he said.

Yuta’s choice of life left his parents Takashima Takenori and Takashima Ikuko with questions. In 2010, Yuta’s parents visited Nganget to witness his activities. “After visiting Nganget, they didn’t ask any questions. They let me do this. They know I will do this no matter what,” Yuta said smiling.

For Yuta, the leprosy survivors are family. That’s why he often spends his days off from his work at a company in Cikarang, West Java, to visit his “family” in an area far from the public transportation network.

While other people take time off to enjoy themselves over Lebaran, Yuta visits the leprosy survivors. “I don’t like hanging out at a café or strolling around. It’s better to visit Nganget or Donorojo,” he said.

He has vowed to keep serving the people, who have been discriminated against because of leprosy. In December, he will marry a Japanese woman who is a social activist like himself.  “My wife will come to Indonesia. We will do this together,” Yuta said.

KOMPAS/SOELASTRI SOEKIRNO

Yuta Takashima

Born: Kagawa, Japan, Dec. 29, 1988

Education: Osaka University, School of Foreign Studies, majoring in Indonesian language (2007-2012)

Employment: Works at a Japanese company in Cikarang, West Java (since 2012)