Electives and Short Term Projects

As we said in Issue 4 of Dòchas, it has been a real joy over the last few years to see the number of young people from Scotland choosing to go overseas with TLM to experience leprosy care as well as life in the developing world as part of their studies. Here 5 of them share just a little of what it was like and whether they would encourage others who get the opportunity to do the same.

More information about arranging your own elective or short term project overseas is available.

Your Guides

Donna Kelly, who is studying Medicine, visited Anandaban Hospital in Nepal

Nicole Buckingham, who is studying Occupational Therapy, visited Purulia Hospital in NE India

James Hardie, who was studying Psychology, visited Karigiri Hospital in SE India

Hannah Crosthwaite, who is studying Medicine, visited Naini Hosptal in N India

Emma Cottman, who is studying Nursing, visited Anandaban Hospital in Nepal

Nicole Buckingham

On 15^th August 2007, I travelled to Purulia, West Bengal in India to study leprosy.  This was for my Occupational Therapy (OT) course; an elective placement that would last five weeks.

Here in the UK I found that many people did not realise leprosy still existed and wondered why I would want to study such a disease.  Even my university lecturers did not take me seriously when I first talked about it.  I suppose the reason for wanting to study leprosy is because it has been around since biblical times and to see if it really is as bad as people make it out to be.

Furthermore many do not know what OT is.  To put it simply, OT helps people who through injury or illness are unable to carry out daily activities.  These activities include washing, dressing, cooking to shopping and work.  OTs provide equipment or teaches new skills in order for people to accomplish these activities.  With leprosy OTs give advice on preventing ulcers, treatment after reconstructive surgery, splints and cooking lessons.  There is a lot more work OT can do for leprosy but these were the areas we focussed on.  It is worth noting that the OT department was small and I felt that with more resources and funding then the department could achieve more.  There were no OT books and my OT had not long qualified and there was no other OT to get advice from.

In terms of the work in Purulia, I could not have any patients of my own as I did not speak the language.  Despite this I was still able to get my point across by simply demonstrating what I was wanting.  In India most professionals speak English.  The poor do not due to a lack of education.

There are three areas that took me by surprise and I would also think would take others by surprise: traffic, poverty and leprosy.  The traffic and driving in India was horrendous.  All I can say is as someone said to me “ India has driving rules, they just don’t abide by them.  Rules are meant to be broken.”

When you get out of the airport, the first thing you will notice is the poverty.  People sleep at the side of very busy roads and come up to beg for food or money.  It is scenes like this that remind you of how lucky we are in Britain .  Even our homeless appear to be in a better state than India ’s poor.

If you want to get a clear picture of how leprosy affects a person physically then my advice would be to wipe away any preconceived ideas you have from the cinemas.  Make no mistake leprosy is a terrible disease but the cinemas make it look a lot worse than it is.  Leprosy affects people in many different ways.  The stigma of leprosy is very disabling and it is the stigma which I believe makes it a more horrendous disease.  Remember leprosy is curable and you can touch people with leprosy.

It was a great experience and would recommend it to anyone.

All content © 2007-2008 The Leprosy Mission Scotland

Scottish Charity No.
SC022411

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