ILEP Activities

The following ILEP Member is supporting anti-leprosy activities in Senegal:
- Deutsche Lepra- und Tuberkulosehilfe (DAHW)

Examples of DAHW's Activities in Senegal

Deutsche Lepra- und Tuberkulosehilfe’s support for people affected by leprosy in Senegal began in 1965. It is now also supporting the National Leprosy Control Programme in Senegal, which covers the whole population and has been helping to progressively integrate leprosy services into those for general health. From around 2003 DAHW also began to provide health workers with training in recognising and treating not only leprosy, but also tuberculosis. 

In addition, social workers and inhabitants of several Senegalese villages, which were formed during colonial times, have acquired equal rights to other citizens due to the efforts of a social and economic rehabilitation programme initiated in 1978 by DAHW to ensure that these people affected by leprosy were no longer excluded from all state and regional development programmes. Between 1996 and 2005, among other activities, DAHW social workers organised training courses for the village locals in all areas of self-organisation, including the formation of village groups and of an administrative structure. The task of overseeing plots of land in the village of Souane was transferred to families in 2004 and they have been given the chance to use small credits to create market gardening ventures. The intention is to ensure full participation in the administration of the district through elected village representatives. Three other leprosy villages followed suit in 2005 and their inhabitants now also own small plots of land. In some leprosy villages, DAHW has played a decisive role in influencing the State to recognise such schools and to provide them with lesson materials and pedagogical support.