Sorted Magazine

Tag: Leprosy Mission

  • Comment: Heatwave in India

    The Chief Executive of The Leprosy Mission has voiced his concern over the severe effects of climate change in Asia. The World Meteorological Organization has warned that Asia is bearing the brunt of climate change. The warning from the United Nations weather agency coincides with a severe heatwave in India. Temperatures are soaring to as high as 45 degrees across great swathes of the country.

    Chief Executive Peter Waddup said the World Meteorological Organization’s findings sadly come as no surprise. He said: “Over the past few years we have witnessed our colleagues in Asia struggle with severe heatwaves, floods and storms. In fact we now need to budget for extreme climate emergencies which happen every year. Last year we provided emergency food and medical supplies to communities in Myanmar. This was in the aftermath of Cyclone Mocha which made landfall in Western Myanmar on May 14th. With wind speeds of up to 250km per hour, it was one of the strongest cyclones to ever hit the country, destroying homes and livelihoods.

    “Now my colleagues in India are battling daily life in hospitals and clinics without air conditioning. Their concern is to make the patients as comfortable as possible.” Peter said that in India, where the majority of people live hand to mouth, there is little option but to carry on. “For the majority in India, not working equates to not eating,” he said.

    “My colleague at Salur Hospital in Andhra Pradesh sent over a photo of women labourers working on the site yesterday in 45 degree heat. They are immaculately dressed in colourful saris and were stoically carrying on. I simply cannot imagine doing such physical work in insufferable temperatures. People continue to queue in the blistering heat outside our Outpatients’ departments in India. These are often the only places where they can see a doctor free of charge and places where they are loved , accepted and cared for. So although terribly uncomfortable, a wait in the burning sun is simply a means to an end.

    “I keep recalling the feeling of dread I had running up to July 19th 2022. This is when meteorologists had warned that, for the first time in the UK, temperatures would exceed 40 degrees. We all planned our lives so there was minimal movement for two days simply to make life bearable. I really cannot imagine how they can carry on for weeks in India in such severe heat. The summer monsoon will bring some relief but it is still weeks away.”

    The news that Asia’s struggle with climate change is greater than the rest of the world’s came a day after Earth Day on Monday [22 April]. Peter said: “I love looking at the photos that NASA release every year on Earth Day in celebration of our incredible planet. Taken from satellites, aircraft and deep-space missions, they leave me in awe and wonder. How to protect our beautiful planet is a monumental challenge. The World Meteorological Organization is calling for national weather services across Asia to improve disaster planning. There are also renewed calls for governments to implement net zero emissions by 2040 to help quell rising temperatures.

    “In our own lives we are encouraged to reduce our carbon footprints by flying and driving less and switching to renewable energy. I just hope and pray this will be enough to protect the people suffering the very most from climate change.”

    Main Photo Credit: Umesh Negi via Getty Images

  • Comment: “With any long-term disease comes a sort of mental burden.”

    Chief Executive of The Leprosy Mission, Peter Waddup, is urging people to challenge others who react negatively to anyone struggling with disease. Peter’s eyes have been opened to the suffering this causes, having listened to the heart-wrenching stories of people affected by leprosy.

    Despite being entirely curable, leprosy continues to loom large in the public imagination today. Those affected often suffer greater scars emotionally than from the physical disease itself.

    Peter says that there is no place for disease-related stigma today, whether it be HIV, addiction, or leprosy.

    “With any long-term disease comes some sort of mental burden,” said Peter.

    “Whether it be the strain of managing a condition or frustration over the restriction it puts on someone’s life.

    “There are some diseases, however, where it seems more fair game to make a derogatory comment.

    “We are all guilty of it and often someone may not have even realised they are even showing prejudice. So, it is a good challenge to set and definitely one for me to live out in practice! It’s hard to think of an emotion more painful than shame and I would hate to play a part in causing such hurt.”

    Peter said overcoming stigma surrounding leprosy is the biggest hurdle to ending the disease once and for all.

    “Leprosy is a cruel physical disease which attacks the body. And yet it’s the mental torment surrounding it which is often the hardest to bear,” he said.

    “I have sat with people who have been subjected to unimaginable cruelty. They have been beaten, set fire to and cast out of their families and communities. All because they have leprosy, a curable disease that shouldn’t even exist today. Now, living on the streets, they are the untouchables, the unwanted.

    “Perhaps the cruellest twist is people hiding the early signs of leprosy because they fear rejection. Tragically this temporary fix only serves as a self-fulfilling prophecy. They then develop disabilities because they did not take the antibiotic cure soon enough. Now, bearing the physical signs of leprosy, they go on to live out the heartache of isolation they feared. It’s small wonder that the disease goes hand in hand with anxiety and depression.”

    Leprosy Mission teams work tirelessly to find and cure leprosy in some of the world’s poorest communities. Yet a good part of the charity’s work is awareness raising.

    Peter said: “It’s so important that we begin to expose leprosy for what it really is. A tiny bacterium that simply needs to be caught and treated early. We are continually battling the narrative that leprosy is a curse.

    “While where we work across Asia and Africa this means educating communities, there is also still work to do in the UK.

    “The image of a person with leprosy shaking a bell to warn they are ‘unclean’ is firmly embedded in our psyche. The derogatory term ‘leper’ is used freely today in the UK, often completely innocently. But when you have witnessed the damage that label causes to a person’s life, it prompts me to renew my call to stop all prejudice surrounding any disease. Words are powerful. Labels like ‘leper’, only serve to damage people’s lives when they are at the most vulnerable.

    “I am so encouraged that, through the generosity of people in the UK, we can take each leprosy patient on a journey to restore their dignity. The mental scars might always be there. But through the compassion of my incredible colleagues overseas, together, we help to bring healing and rebuild lives.”

    Main Photo Credit: Jeffrey Chukwu

  • Faith: “nothing short of miraculous”

    International Christian Development Agency The Leprosy Mission has set up eleven Hubs of Hope in Cabo Delgado, the most northern province of Mozambique. The residents have lived amid escalating violence since 2017. More than 4,000 people have been killed. The United Nations states that almost a million people have been forced to flee their homes.

    The Hubs have been built as a result of the Unconditional Campaign in 2021, which was awarded UK Aid Match funding. This meant every pound donated was matched by the UK government. The appeal raised £4.4 million, including £2 million from the UK government.

    The Hubs of Hope are often the only place in a village with electricity and an internet connection. People once banished from their communities because of leprosy are welcomed in the hubs. Members of the community have been trained as Leprosy Changemakers. As a result more than 1,300 people have been cured of leprosy since the project began. This has happened because 43 government health workers have received leprosy training. Leprosy Changemakers refer people to these vital health workers. The training ensures no leprosy case is misdiagnosed or missed through ignorance.

    Chief Executive of The Leprosy Mission England and Wales, Peter Waddup, said: “I am incredibly thankful to our amazing supporters for changing the lives of tens of thousands of people in Northern Mozambique for the better. And we are only halfway through the roll-out of this incredible project!

    “I am also in awe of my tenacious and selfless colleagues in Mozambique. The fact that this project has been able to go ahead, let alone be so successful, in such circumstances is nothing short of miraculous. Not only have they risked their own lives by working in areas of violent attacks, but they have also sacrificed their own family time. Since the project began, many staff families have left Cabo Delgado for safety as the insurgents moved south towards Pemba. Yet Leprosy Mission teams have remained resolute and steadfast. Their bravery and sacrifice have provided a lifeline to people who have been through unspeakable trauma. I am so thankful for and inspired by the hope radiating from these special Hubs seven days a week.”

    Main Photo Credit: Ricardo Franco

  • News from The Leprosy Mission

    News from The Leprosy Mission

    Leprosy Mission teams are shocked to discover the tea gardens of Bangladesh are home to the highest leprosy rate they have seen.

    The Leprosy Mission has worked in the slums of the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka for many years. The overcrowded living conditions and poor sanitation are not only distressing but ripe for disease.

    Just a few hours’ drive Northeast of Dhaka, the fresh air and the vibrant foliage of the tea gardens are the perfect antidote to the city slums.

    But appearances can be deceptive. While the tea crop flourishes, leprosy is choking the life out of its workforce.

    There are 600,000 people living and working on the tea estates of Sylhet with the leprosy rate 20-30 times the global average. This equates to thousands of people living with untreated leprosy. Almost no family remains unscathed and even children are showing the early signs.

    Leprosy Mission doctors and health workers are staggered by the number of new cases they have found. Since going into tea estates in 2017, they have found and cured more than 1,600 new cases of leprosy. The more they look, the more they find.

    The discovery has culminated in the launch of the Flourish campaign on Sunday 29 January, World Leprosy Day 2023. Flourish seeks to find and cure tea workers and their families of leprosy, protect livelihoods and create a future where the whole community can flourish.

    Chief Executive, Peter Waddup, says there is a real urgency to find and cure new cases of leprosy. This is before disability sets in and the tea workers lose everything they know and love.

    Peter said: “The situation in the tea gardens is very unusual. This is not just because of the extraordinary high rate of leprosy but the lack of stigma surrounding the disease.

    “I’ve had the privilege of visiting our projects across Asia and Africa and one thing is constant. That is the terrible prejudice surrounding leprosy. People are, understandably, reluctant to come forward for treatment because of this prejudice. They live in fear of being seen as cursed and cast out of their families and communities.

    “But what is unusual within the tea estates of Bangladesh is there doesn’t seem to be a huge amount of stigma surrounding the disease.

    “This is likely to be because the workforce is made up of ethnic and religious minorities who are, sadly, already marginalised from society.

    “When the workers are fit and well, they form a tight-knit community with friendships between the tea pickers often going back decades.

    “The trouble comes when nerve damage caused by leprosy causes fingers to curl.

    “As the tea pickers are paid by the kilogram of tea picked, speed and efficiency are everything.

    “There is a very real worry among the tea pickers that they will lose their home and community. This is because employees are provided with a basic family home which they must leave should they become too sick or disabled to work.

    “My colleagues in Bangladesh are already running pop-up clinics in a third of the tea gardens in Sylhet, finding and curing new leprosy cases.

    “Knowing the full extent of the problem, we desperately need the resources to scale up this work.

    “There is a real urgency to find and cure people before leprosy leaves them too disabled to work and they lose everything. 

    “The aim is always to cure people of leprosy at the earliest opportunity.

    “As well as preventing transmission, prompt treatment stops leprosy from causing life-long disabilities.

    “The fact that there doesn’t appear to be too much stigma surrounding taking the cure for leprosy in the tea gardens is a good thing. It means people are open to treatment.

    “Tragically it is when they are forced to leave the tea gardens because of leprosy that they are exposed to extreme prejudice.”

    Main photo credit: Ruth Towell