Indonesian leprosy survivor sculpts artificial limbs to try and help villagers with the illness

Ali Saga still vividly recalls the day four decades ago when people in a clinic in Jakarta ran away from him after a doctor shouted, “This person is a leper!” Motivated by his years being treated as an outcast after he was diagnosed with leprosy in the 1970s, the 57-year-old has found a way to help others. On January 18, 2023, he explained why he has been hand-crafting prosthetics for people who lost limbs because of the bacterial infection. Indonesia’s government has set a target of eradicating leprosy by 2024, but still has the world’s third-highest number of cases.