Kabulat leprosy colony:
Only one leper colony in the Central Kalimantan province and had been visited by the writer in 2003.
Brief history of the Kabulat settlement.
There is no document found telling about the settlement. According to Mr Ticek A. Rahoi (85 years old), leader of the settlement, it was erected during the Dutch occupation Indonesia around 1940. Dr Kloke, a Dutch doctor was a pioneer for the establishment of the settlement. During that time stigma and leprophobia was very high in the society. Many leprosy patients were isolated in the forest. Dr Kloke tried to collect and to look after them. For this purpose then Dr Kloke bought about 25 HA of land lies along aside of the Kapuas river at Kabulat village. They built houses, clinic and church for the leprosy patients. There were about 290 leprosy patients admitted to the settlement. About 3 years later Dr Kloke left the country then Dr Kam a German doctor replaced him. Dr Kam looked after the patients with the support from the church.
After the Indonesia independent, the church built 4 long houses (rumah panjang) to replace the old houses. The priests actively collected the patients from Central and South Kalimantan. The leprosy patients were admitted more and more. The settlement provided every patients with monthly rations consist of: 20 kg of rice, 4 kg sugar, 20 eggs, 4 pieces of soap, 4 kg of dried salty fish, 4 l cooking oil, and 2 kg of bean.
During the president Soeharto period, the government took over the management of the settlement under the Social Affair but the land still belongs to the church. The subsidy from government become less and less. The number of inhabitants year by year becomes less and less as many of them went to another places to earn a living and died due to old aged. The government erected HC including leprosy clinic about 5 km away from the settlement and then the clinic in the settlement was closed. After implementing the MDT programme here, all of them had been declared RFT
Present situation.
There are remaining 4 ex-leprosy patients staying in the settlement. Many healthy people have joined them in the compound. All 4 ex-leprosy patients have separately houses staying with their healthy children. We could not find the long houses any more. There is no signboard that indicates the name of leprosarium or settlement. The ration from the government has been stopped since three years ago. Total healthy people including the children of the patients are 45. Therefore total inhabitants are 50 people. The proportion of ex-leprosy patients is 8%. They are already in self-reliance condition. Every patient has enough land for farming. My impression is that, there is no more settlement here. The settlement has changed to a normal village. For the health service need, they can go to Selat Ulu HC similarly with other normal people.
