Nine NGOs joined to co-sign a Global Appeal to end discrimination against people affected by leprosy on 28^th January 2008.  

“Diagnosed and treated promptly, leprosy leaves no trace. Far harder to remove is the age-old stigma.” These words in the Appeal summarise the situation today. Treatment is available and patients can be cured fully. Treated early, before nerve damage sets in, persons are free of disabilities. Despite showing no outward signs of having had leprosy, the stigma surrounding leprosy still means persons face wide-spread discrimination.

“Everywhere I see barriers preventing people affected by leprosy from leading normal lives,” said Mr Yohei Sasakawa, Chairman of The Nippon Foundation and the World Health Organization Goodwill Ambassador for the Elimination of Leprosy. He repeated his request for their human rights to be respected, as he had at his two previous appeals launched around World Leprosy Day in 2006 and 2007.

The Appeal was read by two children from the Republic of Tanzania who have been cured of leprosy, Sahira Adam Hamadi and Ame Juma Muhamed. 

Jose Ramirez, an American diagnosed with leprosy in 1968 and later cured, has a career as a social worker. He is also the editor of The Star, the newsletter of Carville*, a board member of American Leprosy Missions, a spokesperson for IDEA, the International Association for Integration, Dignity and Economic Advancement, and an advocate for persons affected by leprosy. Despite his full participation in life,  he said that people still step back from him when he tells them he has had leprosy. All persons cured of leprosy he has talked to have voiced the wish to be able to live with dignity and to participate in society.

“Barriers to persons affected by disability everywhere could also be removed if society can be made more accessible to persons affected by leprosy” said Mr Barry Clarke, Chair of International Save the Children Alliance. Sir Edmund Clay, Trustee of Leonard Cheshire, called on people to lobby their governments to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, adopted

13^th December 2006.

NGOs signing this Appeal:

• Amnesty International
• Disabled Peoples’ International
• Helped Aged International
• International Commission of Jurists
• International Movement ATD Fourth World
• International Save the Children Alliance
• Leonard Cheshire Disability
• Women’s World Summit Foundation
• The Nippon Foundation

Click here to read the Global Appeal 2008 in full: 
http://www.nippon-foundation.or.jp/eng/20080128AppealContent.html

 

*The National Hansen’s Disease Museum, that had formerly been the only public health hospital in the States for persons affected by leprosy in the USA.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Category: News and Notes