Leprosy is not an easy subject to ‘sell’. People can have many pre-conceptions about what leprosy is, and what it is not. The hardest task can be bringing leprosy ‘up-to-date’. People working in fundraising and communications for a leprosy organisation have a difficult barrier to remove before they can even begin to explain the needs. That barrier is often posed in the form of a question: ‘Does leprosy still exist then?’

Everyone knows that poverty exists. Millions of people have seen images of slums on the verge of collapse, children suffering from severe malnutrition, cities devastated by earthquakes. The needs are huge and undeniably obvious. No-one needs to be told that poverty is still an issue.

But those who have the task of championing leprosy, and the hundreds of thousands of people who are still diagnosed with it every year, have to overcome the assumption of a generation that leprosy is a historical, almost mythological, disease that has little or no impact on people’s lives today.

As communication and fundraising professionals we need to get beyond telling people the fact that it is a disease that needs ‘eradicating’. We need to start focusing much more on the social consequences of leprosy, consequences that very few other diseases generate.   

Which brings us to World Leprosy Day and The Leprosy Mission’s Just Cause campaign

Choosing the theme

o        Why ‘just cause’?

In an e-mail conversation with a colleague in the TLM office in New Zealand, I learnt that he was thinking of using ‘justice’ as his theme for World Leprosy Day 2010. Throughout 2009 there had been a few discussions at TLM forums and workshops about leprosy and human rights. I realised that a theme like ‘justice’ would make a great starting point as we developed ideas for our World Leprosy Day resources.  

o        Campaigning – people’s changing attitudes to ‘charity’

In the UK in recent years, probably partly as a result of the Make Poverty History campaign in 2005, there has been a growth in campaigns and awareness-raising. Rather than just asking people to give money, charities have been asking people to ‘speak out’ and to help raise awareness of certain issues.

People are often very indignant about human rights-related issues, whether that is poverty, or the number of children dying from diseases that are easily curable. I felt it was important with World Leprosy Day 2010 to try and tap into this mindset, to recognise that the unjust treatment of those with leprosy can be a starting point to encourage people to ‘join our cause’, something that often appeals to the younger generation. A lot of these campaigns have developed on-line, by tapping into the growth in popularity of social networking sites.  Now, there are easier, cheaper ways of engaging with a large population.  

Developing the concept

I had been standing at a tube station one day, looking at the enormous posters covering the walls. At that time, quite a number of charities had strong advertising campaigns; campaigns that engaged people and got them to think about issues surrounding poverty. I began to wonder what kind of ‘campaign’ TLM could have, and what were some of the big issues that related to ‘leprosy’. 

I thought again about the social consequences of the disease, how people can be rejected, mistreated, and isolated just because they had a physical disease – and how unjust this is.

I kept turning the words ‘just because’ over in my mind: just because a person has leprosy they can miss out on an education, or marriage, or the support of their community.

When I sat down to think about the wording for our theme of justice for World Leprosy Day, I played around with the words ‘just because’. I wrote these two words down on a piece of paper in various different ways. I wanted to insert ‘justice’ somewhere. But for quite a while I was struggling to fit it in.  

Along with the strength of other charity campaigns, I had been inspired by some ‘play on words’ posters.  I like phrases or sentences that have a double meaning; it makes people think about the message the organisation is trying to get across.

At one point it dawned on me that ‘justice’ was already in the phrase I was playing around with – ‘just’.  It did not take long before I connected it with ‘cause’ in ‘because’. And there was my ‘play on words’: Just Cause. I looked at it for a while and then started writing down a few sentences:

Just because I have leprosy, I am rejected

Just because I have leprosy, I am isolated

 Then I began to feel reasonably happy that it could be used in posters, brochures, videos, or in other creative ways.

Ideas for resources

We wanted to do things slightly differently to previous years, partly prompted by the need to limit costs.

o        Flash animation

I wanted to produce something visual, maybe a film, something that could be used in a variety of formats, particularly on websites or on social networking sites. After a bit of investigation I discovered that a Flash animation could look effective and also would cost less than printed material.  Having photos and text together with some background music was simple but effective; the animation could be used in a variety of ways, people could have it on their websites, use it as a presentation to small groups or during a church service.

TLM has many support offices around the world, particularly in Europe. People were able to translate the resources they needed. The Flash and posters ended up being produced in French, Italian and Hungarian. I wondered if ‘just cause’ would be difficult to translate and whether it would still retain the double meaning. But, thanks to some clever linguists, it worked.  

o        Posters

To tie in with the Flash animation, I came up with three different posters that used the ‘just cause’ message. The photos of the three people used in the posters were also used in the flash animation, to provide some continuity. I tried to find photographs of people from the different regions where TLM works – Africa, Asia and the Far East. And I did my best to use people who I knew had been affected by some of these human rights issues.

o        Case studies and photos

I made the case studies of the people in the posters available for our ‘Supporting Countries’ to use. This meant they had some good examples of ways people affected by leprosy have experienced stigma, rejection and isolation. I also made available a few other stories that were not featured in the posters to provide a wider selection of case studies. 

Encouraging collaboration

One of the other reasons for choosing the theme of ‘justice’ was to try and encourage collaboration between TLM’s Supporting Countries. Most years, widely different material is produced by the individual countries. I was hoping that some at least would decide to use the theme of justice, even if they did not use the resource material produced. This way, our identity as an organisation has the opportunity to grow. It means we are giving a consistent message to our supporters around the world. I was encouraged that some countries did decide to use the theme and resources, alongside other individual material. 

One country in particular – Scotland – really liked the theme and have created a very good campaign around human rights and the ‘just cause’ of leprosy. They had their posters amended to include a phone number that people could text as a way of raising money and support. They are using this theme throughout the year and also have a good campaign going on Facebook.

Conclusion

We have yet to see, in financial terms, the impact of the campaign. But I am hoping that it will be a good foundation for future campaigns for TLM, either by individual countries or jointly.  

Fighting for a Just Cause Campaign:
http://www.leprosymission.org/web/pages/resources/wld2010.html

Contact:
Fiona Spence, Communications Manager
E-mail: fionas@tlmint.org 

Categories: Fundraising