THE LEPROSY MISSION NZ IN ACTION

Community Development
To ensure our work effectively moves the poor towards a life free from poverty it is important to respond to needs of individual communities; enabling local people to take charge of their own development…
Then together in partnership we can see whole communities develop and flourish. By focusing on community infrastructure like access to clean water, better sanitation and health education. The Leprosy Mission helps raise the standard of living for the whole community. This is not only a preventative process against the spread of leprosy (and other similar diseases) but also encourages reintegration of those socially excluded by leprosy back into their community.

Micro Enterprise
At the heart of Micro Enterprise is empowerment: helping people to help themselves.
This is achieved by establishing small savings and loans groups. People affected by leprosy and poverty, leprosy-disabled, disabled or excluded for other reasons, work together and support each other in new small business initiatives. Successful enterprises include fattening cattle, keeping poultry or setting up small shops. The Leprosy Mission NZ currently has Micro Enterprise projects in Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Nepal, India and Papua New Guinea.

Community Based Rehabilitation
The voice of many is louder than one. Community based rehabilitation gathers the support of neighbours, relatives and friends to join together with leprosy affected people to make their needs heard, and to help each other. It enables people with disabilities and deformities to be cared for and to prevent disability, all in their own communities - only being referred for hospital care when really necessary. Ulcer management, tendon transfer surgery, pre and post operative physiotherapy, occupational therapy and other forms of medical treatment are made available by The Leprosy Mission when needed. Such care is not always open to people with leprosy through their country's primary health system. People with leprosy are generally stigmatised and only recently in some countries are they permitted entry into public hospitals. The Leprosy Mission New Zealand supports expert professional care in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Papua New Guinea, and Timor Leste.

Advocacy
The voice of many is louder than one.
People with leprosy need solidarity and support from others so their voices are heard. The social exclusion faced while battling with daily grinding poverty, is a breach of basic human rights. No human being should be ostracised because of a disease or disability. The Leprosy Mission NZ’s mandate is to help people join together so they can become a strong voice against these human rights violations. All of our projects include a strong advocacy component to fight the injustices caused by leprosy and poverty.

Capacity Building
We work to strengthen the resources and skills of local partner organisations.
This allows projects run by partner organisations to be successful at the grass roots without losing sight of the bigger picture. The Leprosy Mission NZ is involved with Ethiopian and Chinese partners enabling them to achieve their own development goals through good planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

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Education for Life
As the saying goes, “You can give a person a fish and provide food for a day; or you can teach a person how to fish and they will have food for a life time.”
The Leprosy Mission provides basic education as well as training in trades such as sewing, welding, and electrical and mechanical engineering. This significantly improves employment opportunities for children and teenagers living in poverty and often also with leprosy. The opportunity to earn a living and become an accepted member of their community is the dream of leprosy affected and socially excluded people. In Faizabad (India), our Vocational Training Centre sees over 100 of these young people graduate each year. There are similar programmes around India and throughout the world.

Emergency Relief
Who knows when the next natural disaster will hit?
Disasters can strike any time and anywhere, affecting the poor so much harder than people in developed countries who benefit from stronger buildings and better infrastructure. For the poor who also suffer from leprosy - including disability and marginalisation - the impact of a natural disaster hits even harder. Such is the fear of leprosy in some places that people known to have the disease are prevented from participating in general emergency relief. While continuing to fight leprosy stigma in its general work, The Leprosy Mission is always on board to meet emergency needs of leprosy affected people, their families and communities in times of disaster.