Raji Kemi
Raji (44) is slightly deaf. This is a side effect, due to her medication for multi-drug resistant tuberculosis. Damien Foundation gives out hearing aids to anyone who needs them.
But Raji doesn't moan about it. “You should have seen me four years ago. I was skin and bones and coughing up blood.”
Raji, mother of four, was the first person in Nigeria to be diagnosed with tuberculosis in its resistant form. Damien Foundation had the drugs rushed over from Belgium, and Raji was saved.
Much of Raji's proud demeanour is to do to with her family. “It is commonplace for people with tuberculosis to be ignored or abandoned, even when they have been given the all clear. But my husband, a car mechanic, stuck by me.”
TEKST: Wendy Huyghe
PHOTOS: Tim Dirven @ T.Dirven voor Damiaanactie