One of the ways that persons affected by leprosy often face discrimination is through being denied access to a livelihood. This is often because of stigma.
This problem was made a lot worse by the Covid-19 pandemic, when many people lost their livelihoods, including persons affected by leprosy.
In fact, persons affected by leprosy were particularly badly affected because many of them work in the 'grey economy', which requires you to be able to leave home and engage customers on a day to day basis. We have learnt how important it is to make livelihoods resilient so that persons affected by leprosy can continue to make a living even through crises.
As lockdowns forced people to stay at home, many needed support with accessing essential items. During some of the worst days of the pandemic, our teams provided tens of thousands of households with the emergency provisions they needed to see them through lockdown.
As well as being isolated within the employment market, far too many persons affected by leprosy were isolated from crucial health information. Our teams worked hard to rectify this situation.
In India, our team ran the Virus pe Vijay campaign, which raised awareness of Covid-19 amongst marginalised and isolated groups. In Mozambique, our team translated the government's Covid-19 guidance into local languages so that local people could access it.
In Nigeria we heard from one woman who said, “Except for our Officer from TLM, who came to tell us what the disease was all about and how to guard against it, no one told us anything”.
In many countries there was limited state support available to vulnerable people. Our teams connected persons affected by leprosy with governments so that they could receive financial and essential support from the state.
In Myanmar our team facilitated a call between the Myanmar Association of Persons Affected by Leprosy (MAPAL) and a Union Minister, which then led to generous financial support for 15,000 persons affected by leprosy across Myanmar.
As well as providing a direct response to the immediate needs presented by Covid-19, we have continued to provide vocational training throughout the pandemic so that we can equip more persons affected by leprosy with the skills to develop their livelihoods.
This work has even adapted to the Covid-19 situation by moving online in some instances.
1,571 people received vocational training or apprenticeships through TLM in 2020
MAPAL meeting with a Union Minister in Myanmar in October 2020
In 2020 we ensured that the voices of persons affected by leprosy were heard at the highest levels of government.
At the UN's major disability rights conference (the CRPD Conference), we hosted a side event where women affected by leprosy could speak about the challenges that are specific to women affected by leprosy.
At this same conference we also organised a speech that was delivered at a conference Roundtable by U Soe Win of Myanmar, who spoke about the realities of leprosy for older persons.
In many countries, persons affected by leprosy are denied their rights.
In 2020, we supported persons affected by leprosy in Myanmar, Mozambique, Nepal and Bangladesh to submit reports to various United Nations Human Rights platforms (the Human Rights Council, the CRPD Committee and the CEDAW committee). These reports highlight the issues that persons affected by leprosy face.
Watch our UN's side event on women and leprosy
We have been growing our connections with the UN over recent years. We have now attended the CRPD Conference four years in a row and we hope to keep that connection growing in the years to come.
We also aim to continue to participate when the UN reviews the human rights situation of the leprosy-affected countries that we work in. We will continue to submit reports to the Human Rights Council and other relevant committees to ensure that the voices of persons affected by leprosy will be heard.
The pandemic has caused a crisis for livelihoods across the world and persons affected by leprosy were hit particularly hard by this.
However, we are confident that we are well-placed to handle this crisis. Through our Vocational Training Centres, our partnerships with local businesses, our education support, and our self-help groups, we have methods for getting persons affected by leprosy into the employment market.
23,902 people took part in 2,080 self-help groups in 2020