How do we help?

In 2024, we committed to Bangladesh, India, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Myanmar

Bangladesh

We fund the education of 300 leprosy-affected children through donations from our supporters. These children would never have access to school because of the strong stigma and poverty of their parents, relatives or perhaps their own leprosy backgrounds, making it impossible.

However, our education grant helps to buy school supplies, pay teachers who teach the children, and provide school meals for the children.

                                                                                                                                                                  

The very first task is to convince parents to let their child go to school! This is particularly difficult for little girls, who are more "useful" at home with little brothers and sisters or around the house. If parents can be persuaded of the need for literacy, the importance of learning, the value of knowledge, then they just need to keep the flame alive so that they do not let their children drop out. 

It is a drop in the ocean, but we believe that many small drops make up the ocean, and many more donations to this programme would help many more young children to stop the masses of illiterate beggars in Bangladesh!

We are looking for good-hearted sponsors to help us increase the number of our students!

 

India

Our previous grant in Kolkata has been replaced by a leprosy mission hospital in Kothara, Maharashtra in 2024. Kothara is a smaller, rural hospital, and is a little out of sight. It was therefore with great pleasure and gratitude that the hospital management decided to extend our partnership and support to them in the coming years.

We are involved in financing the general activities of the hospital. Screening programmes in their neighbourhoods are extremely important, as they can help find people who may have had leprosy for years or decades and start treating them. It takes an immense amount of patience, love and wisdom to convince patients and educate their relatives! Screening programmes are costly and require a lot of time, effort, travel and 'outreach'. But their importance in eradicating disease and transforming the lives of people and families is enormous! If only more people could be found!

A wonderful team of doctors and nurses carry out the daily work. A group of them:

Kothara, like all leprosy hospitals, performs a lot of eye surgery. Our support also covers this, of course. People who need eye surgery for leprosy or any other reason could never afford the cost of the procedure! And the return of their sight means a new life for them and their families! If only we could contribute to as many eye operations as possible!

 

Democratic Republic of Congo

We will continue to build water collection points and wells so that women and girls do not have to walk for kilometres to get vital water! One of these water collection points pipes water from a nearby spring to a mountain beyond. It flows healthy, clean drinking water! The wells are established at a common point near several villages. They must be maintained by the local administration.

And near the wells we are also building toilets, which will make the former practice more cultural and especially relatively hygienic. "This neat toilet in Vula advertises that it was built by the Lepramissiio - Hungary (TLM Hongrie).

We will also continue to support screening in Congo to bring at least one area of the country closer to eradication. A very big task!

 

Awareness-raising is extremely important. Without it, thousands of years of tradition, ignorance and stigma will be passed on to future generations. The churches are our partners in the very difficult task of enlightenment, as many, many people gather in them. It is therefore a good time to pass on knowledge! Or, a huge task is being done by members of OPALCO, an organisation of former leprosy patients who go out into the communities and can speak out authentically against the cruelty of stigma, based on their own experiences.

We also support the work of OPALCO!

Myanmar

We help rehabilitate people with musculoskeletal disorders and physical disabilities caused by leprosy and other conditions. There is almost no such specialisation in the country, and people born with physical disabilities or cripples do not receive any medical support. That is why it is very important to help with this within the framework of the Leprosy Mission.

We ask for your kind support so that we can help even more!