In the early 19th century in Sarawak, Hansen’s disease or leprosy became a reportable disease where
the unfortunate victims were forcibly segregated to a leprosarium, leaving behind family, relatives and
future. The image of claw hands or toes and rot noses were associated with the unclean and the sinful.
This chronic transmissible affliction made a great panic to the state government to ostracize sufferers
in an isolated settlement back in the 1920s. Fortunately, the infection can be cured but negative
attitudes towards the former leprosy patients persist until now. This paper is based on ethnographic
work that explores the stigma experienced and challenges faced by former leprosy patients and their
generation. The research findings are based on three months of fieldwork with seven former sufferers
and three children of former sufferers who live in Kampung Sinar Baru, Kota Padawan, Sarawak, a
resettlement village for the former leprosy patients. The findings reveal their dreadful past experiences
on compulsory segregation in Rajah Charles Brooke Memorial Hospital (RCBMH) where they were
forced to be separated from family and hometown which still haunt them till today. In addition,
former patients suffer mental health consequences and humiliation from the effects of treatment and
also from visible deformities. Nevertheless, they believe that the stigmatization is less severe now
than in the past and empathy from society makes them become more independent
