Sculpting a new life for lepers

Saga displaying a prosthetic hand as he compares it to his own hand inside his workshop. - AFP

When Ali Saga visited a clinic in Jakarta four decades ago, he watched as patients and health workers scrambled to get away from him.

“The doctor suddenly shouted at the patients, ‘stand back! this person is a leper!” the 57-year-old said, recalling one of the most devastating moments after his diagnosis in the 1970s.