The Place of Local Self-Government in Leprosy Home Administration

Abstract

EPROSY homes supported entirely or in part by some such organisation as the American Mission to Lepers are confronted with the serious problem of staffing their institutions with an adequate and well trained force. This is due mainly to the fact that funds are limited, and that the number of such institutions requiring financial help are many, and are constantly increasing. As is the case with the Chiengmai Leprosy Home, the superinten dents of many such institutions are recruited from the members of the Mission operating in that particular country. Other pressing mission duties make large demands on the time of the superintendent so that many asylums are seriously handicapped by inadequate supervision. We had to meet such a problem at Chiengmai from the very first and found the solution in local self-government. Local self-govern ment as adopted by this institution is patterned after the Siamese form of village government. It has been in operation for more than twenty years, and has given, and still gives satisfaction. Placing the responsibility on the inmates of the asylum has opened our eyes to the fact that many of them are thoroughly dependable and need only guidance and patience to make them valuable workers. Always before them is the fact that the institution is theirs. As a result, they take pride in their work and are constantly on guard to inspire the same feeling in others who become careless.

‘Laying out a Model Village’: George Gushue-Taylor and Missionary Leprosy Work in Colonial Taiwan

“…In contemporary leprosy colonies and asylums, the Western colonizers carried out experiments in administration. Self-government, a practice fairly common amongst leprosy patients, was also the political and social system characteristic of the local communities (Anonymous 1926a;McKean 1932). For instance, the system of 'headmen' or 'chiefs' could be seen in a great number of leprosy colonies in British India and Africa.…”

“…For instance, the system of 'headmen' or 'chiefs' could be seen in a great number of leprosy colonies in British India and Africa. 'Headmen' were brought into the institutions to maintain discipline, both to instil a sense of responsibility and transform the socially despised into proper 'citizens' (Cooke 1931;McKean 1932). In the above-mentioned Nigerian leprosy colony, the original plan was to segregate patients according to their tribes, but it was never carried out because the inmates worked and played harmoniously together without incident.…”