SILRA Home (Singapore Leprosy Relief Association) looks like a hospital; the residents live in separate male and female wards and sleep on hospital beds, up to twenty a section. We are talking about the poorest of the poor, people whom, because of the effects of leprosy, are completely depending on SILRA’s care. Most of them have no known relatives. The majority is self-reliant, but they never go home.
For many, SILRA has been their HOME for at least 20 years. Naturally, over the years residents have created some sort of ‘private corners’ around their beds using carton boxes, hangings cloths and decorations. Some have an extensive collection of properties, whilst others only possess a clock and a rosary. Their bed frames, window frames and cupboards are all used to store, hang and put up their possessions and to create some sort of homey feel. Exactly that is what interested me; their home within a home.
