In the late evening three workers of the German Leprosy and Tuberculosis Relief Association (DAHW) reach the hospital of Abeokuta wearing next to nothing – they came on foot, although they have a journey of more than 400 km behind them. They started by car from the DAHW office in Enugu. The old off-road vehicle is the most useful means of transport for longer distances given the road conditions in this country.
Fidelis Adebayo runs to the door to welcome his colleagues. The DAHW social worker based in Abeokuta already suspects what has happened: Shortly before reaching the destination the vehicle was stopped by an armed gang and their colleagues were robbed. Every worker of DAHW in Nigeria has learned how to behave in such a case: raise one‘s hands up slowly, follow the orders of the robbers and offer them politely everything they want.
In this case the robbers literally wanted everything: vehicle, money, watches, luggage and even some of the clothes and shoes of their victims. However, the workers of DAHW could save the most important thing: their own lives. “That is a kind of code of honour of the robbers, if the victim does not behave like a hero,” Fidelis explains and later adds, “You never will be able to understand Nigeria!”
It is no secret why there are so many armed gangs in the country: The gangsters are getting their automatic weapons from their principals. They are engaged by entrepreneurs or rich individuals to protect them and sometimes also to intimidate their rivals.
When the principals do not need these “protection services” anymore they just dismiss the people. They are allowed to keep the weapons so to speak as “support for starting a new existence”, the business of this new “Ego-company” is reduced to the basic competencies: robbery, blackmailing and intimidating – just what they had been doing before, but now it’s at their own risk. The people causing these problems don’t care about them and almost everybody in Nigeria can become a victim of these gangs – relief agencies as well as government institutions.
More than 30 female and male nurses sit their exam at the “Sacred Heart Hospital” of Abeokuta annually.
Fidelis shrugs his shoulders, he does not have a solution either, “We just try to travel in the daylight only, when the danger is not as great.” An alternative would be not to travel throughout the country to the many small places far away from the great mega cities. But for the DAHW worker this is out of question, “Who else will take care of the people who get leprosy or tuberculosis and are in urgent need of help? Many of them do not have any possibilities for travelling to the next big town or to a hospital.”
The “waiting hall” of the hospital “Mile 4” in Abakaliki, in the shadow of a tree.
In the most highly populated country of Africa, almost 5,000 persons are diagnosed annually with leprosy; the darker number of unreported cases might be much higher. Every year, more than 500,000 people get tuberculosis and, what is more, one in every ten of them in combination with HIV/AIDS.
Almost all of these patients are from the poorest sector of the population, living in villages without any infrastructure or sufficient provisions or in the slums of the big cities where sometimes more than ten persons are sharing one room. “These are more than 500,000 sound reasons for me and my colleagues not to surrender to the violence in our streets,” Fidelis says when climbing his old motorbike in order to visit some patients – the people he does not want to leave alone in the future, either.
Humans at the heart of our engagement
One example: Samuel who at the age of 12 was left behind by his parents in front of the hospital of Abeokuta because he had leprosy. There he was, cured completely, and he had started to work as a shoemaker. When his boss learned that the boy had had leprosy he ended up on the streets again – 15 years old, alone and without any prospects. The idea of saving his life came from Fidelis: Why shouldn’t Samuel go into business for himself as a shoemaker, open up his own small shop?
“Micro-credit” is the magic word, in these countries often the only chance for people with leprosy stigma. In the relief projects of DAHW they can get small loans, mostly amounts of between 50 and 200 Euros – which is a very small amount by German standards, but almost half an annual income in southern countries. Through this loan and the mentoring of the social worker Fidelis Adebayo the start of a new professional life is secured.
“I am always available for our PAL (people affected by leprosy),” Fidelis describes his role as a social worker and he adds the numerous “sideline jobs” resulting from this task, “business advisor, finance advisor, liaison with authorities or suppliers, and sometimes even comforter when new ventures are not successful.”
Some people have had to give up and have even found themselves unable to repay the small loan from DAHW, “This is a risk we have to run if we are handing out such micro-credits.” Despite all efforts Fidelis has to admit that the system would not function without taking some risk, “If we wanted to avoid any risk we could not undertake anything here in Nigeria.”
But out of the risks many opportunities are arising, too, in this country. Most of the former leprosy patients have succeeded in earning their own living and are supporting their families through their small enterprises. Some, even, have achieved more, such as the shoemaker Samuel: Today he has two shops with seven employees.
“When things are not running so well, we sometimes also have to increase the loan” Fidelis remembers the stall of Joyce, “She has severe mutilations on her hands and one can see immediately that she has had leprosy.” As a consequence, people in her village did not accept her offer, they preferred to fetch their fresh water or other drinks from the neighbouring village.
Thanks to a generator Joyce finally can earn her living by herself.
The social worker remembers that one day, however, when a golden opportunity arose, “An important football match was announced on TV. Everyone in Nigeria is crazy about football.” He promptly increased the level of micro-credit and bought an old TV set and a generator, “There is no power supply in the village and consequently no TV set, and whoever wanted to see the match had to go to Joyce.”
Since then all of the village people have been coming to Joyce and buying their drinks from her – and not only when a football match is showing. The small business is flourishing and Joyce can repay her micro-credit and can feed her small family through her own work.
DAHW’s work maxim is sustainability – this concerns individuals like Samuel or Joyce as well as the projects as a whole: Since 1964, DAHW has been supporting projects (e. g. the hospital of Abeokuta) which are known for their quality far beyond the borders of their region. In particular, Abeokuta is known for its training courses for nurses and for its medical doctors such as Dr. Gertrud Biersack and Dr. Kehinde Schowole.
Starting at the age of 15, today 30, Samuel has two shops with seven employees – for Fidelis Adebayo (left) Samuel is an example of a successful rehabilitation after leprosy.
These hospitals are places of hope and sometimes even shelter against the vicious circle of poverty and disease. For several years already, more and more completely undernourished patients have been coming.
Seeing them Dr. Joseph Chukwu, the medical advisor of DAHW at the hospital “Mile 4” in Abakaliki, feels bad memories coming up, “As a young man I experienced the war in Biafra and the famine that followed. The emaciated patients of today look like the many people whom I saw dying at that time – just here, in the centre of the former Biafra.”
These memories prompted Dr. Chukwu to return to Nigeria after having finished his studies in Austria, in order to help the people in his native country. “And today I sometimes cannot do anything more, because the right drugs for these patients are not always available here.”
Co-Infection TB and HIV – Cordelia has lost so much weight she now weighs less than 40 kg, so first of all she must be fed on a diet of special food. Her husband Boniface cares for her selflessly.
He is talking about tuberculosis patients who are co-infected by HIV – an especially dangerous combination of two diseases one alone of which can lead to death. “First of all we have to coddle up these patients,” Dr. Chukwu says and here he mentions the problems, “That means more investment in working time, drugs and food than for other patients, but we cannot just let these people die!”
This maxim is a recurrent theme in the DAHW projects in Nigeria. The hospitals are places of peace in a country with serious social tensions. People feel secure in the vicinity of these projects: even if in the direst of straits they will find someone here who will take care of them when they are in need of help.
back to the Annual Report 2008
