Mzee Nguogani was a pivotal figure in the life of Kindwitwi over the past 60 years. Quarantined in the village before any of the modern support and treatments arrived, he experienced some of the worst of what it meant to live with leprosy. When Fr Robin first arrived in Kindwitwi and began simple testing and treatment for malaria and other diseases and offering pastoral and basic material care, it was Nguogani, a leader even then, who demanded of Robin, ‘Why are you doing this, don’t you know we are already dead?’ As Robin persevered and gifts of support slowly increased, things began to change. Patients, cured under the National Multi-Drug Therapy programme, were helped to cope with the disabilities they had developed and to provide some of the basics for their families.
Following the establishment of the Rufiji Leprosy Trust, support began to arrive in earnest and the task of supporting the basic government programme of education, case finding and treatment across the whole Rufiji District was set in motion. Nguogani, now Chair of the village community and working in collaboration with Fr Robin, became a critical player in the case finding process. As the outreach programme got underway it became clear that local people needed someone they trusted to become a bridge between themselves and the Ministry of Health’s TB and Leprosy programme.
Nguogani was a skilled communicator and an engaging leader and was recruited to travel ahead of the outreach team on a motorbike, speaking to village heads as one Village Chair to another to another. He would demonstrate to them how he had been cured and what was possible for other patients who came forward. Talking with schools, village gatherings, families and individuals, Nguogani encouraged people with leprosy to present for treatment and care. Following Nguogani’s visits, the rest of the outreach team would arrive with their package of awareness raising, community mobilisation, and patient and family education materials.
In 1992 Nguogani stepped down from his role as Village Chair following his election as Chair of the Kindwitwi branch of the CCM – Tanzania’s ruling party. This was a critical step along the road of Kindwitwi’s transition from Leprosy Camp to being a regular Tanzanian village, fully integrated into the civic, social and economic life of the District.
This year, Nguogani, having reached his nineties, died following a terminal cancer. He was supported to the end by his strong and dedicated family, and the whole Kindwitwi community. Nguogani, like Fr Robin, was a doorway to a life of dignity and wellbeing for so many people – helping them to become understood and cared for by their own communities.
