LALGADH LEPROSY HOSPITAL is one of the world’s busiest leprosy hospitals – at times has an annual patient-flow of over 1,100 NEW leprosy patients, and over 12,000 total leprosy consultations (new and returning), and over 110,000 outpatient consultations of all types (skin diseases, tuberculosis, typhoid, cholera, malaria, elephantiasis, parasitic diseases etc) including 20,000 children.
LLHSC has 100 inpatient beds and an awesome Community Outreach programme with 120 Self-Help Groups. LLHSC runs the leprosy program on behalf of the Nepal Government with a catchment area across Province-2 – that includes 8 Districts with a population of 6.01 million, adjacent to the border with India. It has 45% of all new cases of leprosy in Nepal. The Nepal Leprosy Trust is a Christian organization and a British NGO. It has served people for the last 35 years affected by leprosy, as well as other ill, needy, marginalized, disabled and poor. It was our privilege to link up with Leprosy Hospital in 2023.
Stigma Project, Face Equality International
During this year, we provided funds for the CEO Face Equality International, another British charity to carry out further work on the Stigma Project.
Face Equality International (FEI) works to build capacity for a growing Alliance of charities, NGOs and support groups around the world to advocate for face equality.
The vision of this Alliance is for people with facial differences to live freely, without discrimination or indignity. With a strategic focus to position face equality as a human rights issue, consultation with member organisations delivering services in low- and middle- income countries (LMICs) revealed anecdotal evidence that the most extreme examples of stigmatising behaviours included human rights violations, such as abandonment, abuse, infanticide or being banned from attending school often occur in a low-income context. Our consultation revealed that these occurrences were not being spoken about publicly, let alone recorded or addressed.