Marcelin is 17 and from Ivory Coast. He doesn’t really speak any English, and he’s only just arrived at Ganta Rehab – Liberia’s leprosy hospital a week ago. He’s in the 7th grade at school and really loves maths. He wants to be a policeman and I ask him why. He thinks about it for a moment with a smile. “Because they’re in charge of security and well-paid.”
Two years ago he got patches on his body and lumps on his face. They’re still very much visible now. “I felt sick in my body – I wasn’t able to play football with my friends because I felt so ill. They told me it was witchcraft. I still went to school, but as soon as I came home I would just sleep on my bed.”
His father lives away from the family, and he had leprosy too. But he didn’t see Marcelin until about a year after it had started. And it was another year after that that he decided to bring Marcelin to Ganta Rehab, the same place where he was treated.
“But I didn’t really know anything about him having it.” Marcelin tells me. “I’ve just come here, was dropped off by my father who then went home, been put on treatment and I don’t really know anything else.”
It’s all very new to Marcelin, but luckily Ganta Rehab is very friendly, and I see him playing board games with some of the other patients.
Ganta, Liberia 2015
Two years ago he got patches on his body and lumps on his face. They’re still very much visible now. “I felt sick in my body – I wasn’t able to play football with my friends because I felt so ill. They told me it was witchcraft. I still went to school, but as soon as I came home I would just sleep on my bed.”
His father lives away from the family, and he had leprosy too. But he didn’t see Marcelin until about a year after it had started. And it was another year after that that he decided to bring Marcelin to Ganta Rehab, the same place where he was treated.
“But I didn’t really know anything about him having it.” Marcelin tells me. “I’ve just come here, was dropped off by my father who then went home, been put on treatment and I don’t really know anything else.”
It’s all very new to Marcelin, but luckily Ganta Rehab is very friendly, and I see him playing board games with some of the other patients.
Ganta, Liberia 2015