Leprosy is a disease that brings huge amounts of stigma. People affected face a lot of discrimination because of this disease that can be so visible on a person.
Last year, we trained more people affected by leprosy in self-advocacy than ever before. This means they can go to local governments and organisations and effectively ask for support.
In some instances, people affected by leprosy have had their voices heard at the highest levels of national and international government.
Through our various activities to improve livelihoods for people affected by leprosy, we have seen promising signs that life is getting better.
Of the people affected by leprosy that we surveyed, 86 percent said they are seeing much better and steadier household income. This is compared to 61 percent in 2018. We can see progress like this because of your support.
One of the reasons for this is our self-help groups, which help members with everything from employment to empowerment and from savings to social integration.
The Kuldevmandu Multipurpose Cooperative in Nepal is one of 13 supported by the LiVE project. The Cooperative is comprised of four self-help groups with more than 100 members. The group was set up to support members with income and savings. They started with around 250,000 Nepali Rupees, but by combining the power of the four groups, they had 1.5 million Rupees by 2019. This money has been put into savings and reinvested into livelihood activities so that members can earn a living. One member said “Now we don’t need to go and kneel down before rich money lenders. We can use our fund to solve our household problems ourselves and this has helped to establish new businesses and promote existing businesses.”
What more can be done? Because of your support, our self-help groups are having a huge impact. One of the ways we are looking to increase this impact is through getting our self-help groups to join Disabled Peoples' Organisations. This step allows the groups to access greater legal and financial entitlements.
In recent years we have been developing relationships at the United Nations level. Our efforts to end discrimination against persons affected by leprosy at the national level are more effective with support from the UN. We are going to continue to grow these networks in the years to come.
Another key network for our efforts is local churches. We are looking to grow our relationships with these churches so they can play a part in tackling stigma.
