This is the first street you see when you arrive to Dakia - a leper colony in the highlands of Vietnam.
One of the nuns that runds the colony.
There are 150 kids living in Dakia.
The nun walking trough the facility where the sickest patients live
This is the TV room where those who have developed the disease to lethal stages are isolated from the rest of the colony.
The bedroom where one recently diseased patient lived.
Nglêo are one of the people that still lives in the house where the sickest are isolated. The other rooms are empty, because two men died the week before.
The bedroom where one recently diseased patient lived.
Christian symbols is a big part of the decor on the walls of the houses in the colony.
The nun visiting Nglêo in the isolated part of the colony.
The church in the center of the colony. They have also build a kindergarden and school for the kids.
This is Nia, he has lost all of his fingers on one hand and his toes are deformed. Because of the stigma surrounded the disease and a poorly developed Vietnamese healthcare system many people with this disease suffer the same fate as Nia.
Dakia is run by nuns, here you se one of the together with two other ladies. All there ladies are cured of leprosy. Â
This is Glâi one of the ladies in the colony that has had the disease for a while and therefor has stated loosing her toes. Laprosy kills slowly and attack the nervous system, but if you get treatment, like Giâi here, you can get better end even cured.Â
The nuns that runs the colony holds daily prayer sessions for some of the 540 people that lives here.Â
In Vietnam the disease has a big stigma attached to it, and if one family member is infected the rest get driven out of there homes. Therefor hole families live here, including kids.
One of the nuns walking to the kitchen room.
The path down to the cemetery.
