As a charity, are we wrong to mark our 150th anniversary?
Opinion from TLM Chair, Colin Osborne
This year marks 150 years since an Irishman named Wellesley Bailey started a charitable mission to help people affected by leprosy in India. In the intervening years, that mission has grown into a global mission which has cared for and supported countless millions of people and helped to bring a world without leprosy within sight.
Today I have the honour of being the Chair of The Leprosy Mission as we mark our 150th anniversary. But among the decisions I take alongside the Board, I have asked myself whether it is right for us to acknowledge an anniversary like this.
Anniversaries in many instances are undoubtedly important as we recognise the value that people, institutions, and businesses have added to ourselves and our communities. But in the charitable sector, is the longevity of our work really a sign of our failure?
People might ask us why, after 150 years of work, we have still not succeeded in ending leprosy. Why are individuals still being diagnosed – and going undiagnosed – in communities across the world today?
Within that context I ask myself: is it wrong for us to mark this milestone?
My answer to that question is no, it is not wrong. We are right to mark this milestone for two reasons. Allow me to unpack those with you for a moment.
The first reason I believe we are right to mark this milestone is that a world without leprosy is now a realistic possibility and this anniversary is a valuable opportunity for us to gather momentum as we run the last leg of the race towards a world where no one is diagnosed with leprosy again.
If this year became simply about patting ourselves on the back for a job well done, then I believe it would most certainly be wrong of us to mark this anniversary at all. For me, this anniversary is about how we tell the story of where we have come from, but more importantly: where we are going.
Today we have the tools and knowledge we need to end leprosy transmission. What we lack are the resources and political commitment.
After more than 4,000 years of leprosy transmission, The Leprosy Mission’s aspirational goal is to see an end to leprosy transmission by 2035, a goal whose final decade countdown starts at the end of this year. As we talk to policymakers, major donors and other key stakeholders from this year onwards, we can inspire them with a powerful vision whose finishing line is starting to appear on the horizon.
This year is about starting that decade with a bang so that we can access the resources and political commitment that we lack. This year we can inspire more people to join us.
The second reason is I believe it is right to mark this anniversary is that, although we have not yet eliminated leprosy, the very fact that it is now an achievable goal is remarkable.
A lot of the messaging and imagery you might see around our anniversary will be centred on running a relay race. If, as I’ve said above, we are on the last leg of a very long race to end leprosy, we have to acknowledge just how well those who have run before us have done.
If we go all the way back to the starting pistol, in those first days of the Mission, we remember just how feared leprosy was. There was no understanding of how the disease spread and no hope for either a treatment or a cure. Because of how it relentlessly disfigured and maimed, leprosy was as dreaded in 1874 as it had been for the 4,000 years before that moment. At that time, it was a disease of nightmares.
If I am sitting here 150 years later as The Leprosy Mission’s Chair in 2024 saying that the finishing line is now within site, that leprosy is curable, and that no one need fear this disease any longer, then how well have the runners of the past run?
In all of human history, humanity has succeeded in eliminating exactly one disease until this point. Now we are on the brink of ending one of the very oldest, most persistent diseases this planet has ever known. Earlier I asked whether our longevity was really a sign of our failure. Absolutely not. That we have made it this far from where we started 150 years ago is an incredible achievement.
Please don’t take what I’m saying to mean all of this success is thanks to The Leprosy Mission; this has been a global effort and we will certainly not be claiming all of the credit. But what I do want to do this anniversary year, is give thanks for the people who have donned the TLM colours and run before us. As we take the baton from them, it is right to recognise that we are in this privileged position because of their relentless hard work.
We are on the brink of ending one of the very oldest, most persistent diseases this planet has ever known.
Above all of this, we are a Christian mission and one of the fundamentals of being a Christian is giving thanks to God for everything we have. It is right for me that we mark this 150th anniversary because I want to thank God for the people that have brought us this far. Whilst leprosy still exists, this is not a year of celebration, but it is a year of praise and thanksgiving.
So yes, I believe it is right for us to mark this anniversary. But what will that look like? As with anything in our global mission, the answer will differ from country to country. But underpinning it all will be two Christian principles: praise and petition.
In each country, we will give thanks for how far we have come and those people who have run the race before us. In each country, we will pray for a world without leprosy and renew our efforts to make that world a reality.
Then, at the end of this year, many of us will come together in New Delhi for an event to mark the founding of the Mission in the country where it all began. At that meeting we will give thanks together, we will celebrate the achievements of persons affected by leprosy through the Wellesley Bailey Award, and we will launch our new Global Strategy.
That strategy will begin in 2025 and run until 2030. By the time it ends, our aspirational goal for ending transmission of leprosy will be just five years away. That is a tantalising possibility, but it will not happen by chance. It will only happen through hard, strategic work alongside persons affected by leprosy and our other partners.
If we are fortunate enough to cross the finishing line in the race of zero transmission in 2035, the race against leprosy as a whole will not be finished. There will be people living with the consequences of leprosy for many decades to come and we have a duty to support them that we absolutely will fulfil thanks to the heart and dedication to persons affected by leprosy that so many of our supporters have.
But when we cross that transmission finishing line, that will be the moment when we can finally celebrate. Until then, we mark this anniversary with praise, thanksgiving, and a belief that something special can be achieved.