listening

Submitted by Ehrin Macksey.

Bop, 68, sits on his bed and listens to his broken radio for world news which comes on every evening at 5:30PM. At the age of 6 he contracted Leprosy and his family brought him to the Van Mon Leprosy Village near Thai Binh City in Northern Vietnam. He comes from a farmer’s family and has always wanted to know more about the world outside Van Mon. His radio is his only connection to that world. He has lived at Van Mon for his entire life. Even though Bop has lost both of his eyes, all of his fingers and toes to the disease, he still manages to take care of himself with little or no help. Twice a day he walks 1km to church to pray. When asked why he goes to church so much he said, “I have this disease (leprosy). If in this life I don’t have something to believe in for my next life, then I have nothing, except that I’m unlucky. My life now has become meaningless. I don’t care anymore about my life now or dream about anything in this life. So now I am living and praying, looking forward to the next life.”

Additional information: This photo and the story of Bop has won international awards at the NPPA: Best in Photojournalism, and at the Visual Cultural awards, and here. This story was also turned into 2 Multimedia which is in Vietnamese with English subtitles and can be seen here.