MINISTERING TO THAI LEPERS

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31676, 11 May 1968, Page 4

MINISTERING TO THAI LEPERS

Village of the Outcast*. By Robert M. Wulff. Gollancz. 207 pp. Bibliography.

Like many idealistic young men Robert Wulff—the son of moderately well -to-do parents living in a small town in Minnesota —finished his formal education with a strong, if unformulated, desire to leave the world a little better than he found it Being modest by nature he would not have expressed this wish in so many words, but in his private prayers he sought guidance as to how he could best serve his fellow men.

The opportunity came by chance. He was drafted into the army during the war, and sent to China, which gave him a strong sympathy with the underdog as seen in the Far East After the war, in 1952, he went to Thailand as a tourist and while there happened upon th* McKean

Leper Colony, and its energetic director. Dr Richard S. Buker. Here, he felt, was a way to fulfil his urge to social service, and overcoming the natural horror of leprosy, as well as such extraneous things as snakes, rats and the sight of blood he became the doctor’s assistant, and decided to devote his life to the victims of what is still one of the worst scourges known to man. It was not till three year* later, when Dr Buker had completed his contract, and his successor proved to be unsympathetic to Wulff that the young man decided to canalise his energies in a personal enterprise. With nine of hi* fellow worker* themselves “arrested” lepers (there is no actual cure for the disease, but it can be rendered virtually null if treated in time) he set out to put into practice his cherished object He was to take up a tract of

jungle, and turn it into a settlement or village, for leper families. Northern Thailand is one of the worst areas in the world for leprosy, and the author tell* some tragic stories of concealment by their families of a leper in the home, who simply feed the patient* with scrap* of food until he 1* nothing but an organism without mind or purpose. Robert Wulff used all bis own money, and what influence he could command with co-reli-gionist* at home to support the work, but was deeply incensed by the reluctance of the American Leprosy Mission to publish "horror” photographs, showing deformities, a* well as by the general belief that the disease was rapidly being stamped out Nevertheless, in spite of chronic shortage of money, discouragement at home, endless frustration* from Thai bureaucracy, and ill-health caused by amoebic dysentery he persisted in hi* i The original nine pioneers were later to be reinforced by others to the number of 150, and house* were built a well dug and rice, garlic and other staple foods like bananas were grown to make the community self-support-ing. AU this gave a purpose to live* which might otherwise have been a burden on their feUows and desperately frustrating themselves. Hiving at last seen Trinity Village become an accomplished fact the author took a much-needed trip home, where be began to launch fresh schemes for starting two other leper villages when he returned to Thailand. By this time his persistence had begun to pay off and with his beautiful Thai wife he was sent for by no less a person than Senator Hubert Humphrey to explain his work and it* aims. This is a success story with a difference. For one thing it is rooted in unselfish Idealism. For another, it ha* attracted the sympathy of the United State* Government, a* is shown in a highly appreciative foreword by Vice-Presi-dent Humphrey himself. The book is full of human interest, told, a* it is, mainly in it* original diary form. It shows both sides of the Thai character—a noble capacity for overcoming physical handicap* in the service both of self and community, and the everlasting petty jealousies and other human failing* which necessarily arise in such an undertaking. Through hl* own private' reflections, as disclosed to hl* diary, the author come* to life a* a delightfully humble and modest individual as well as an inspired organiser, whose reward for unceasing labour in the service of underprivileged humanity is a sense of achievement, a lovely wife and family and the affection and respect of hi* adopted country.