World Leprosy Day 2008

Raoul Follereau

Background to World Leprosy Day

"Among the enterprises that I've inaugurated in the context of the 'Fight against Leprosy', the most spectacular and certainly the most efficacious has been 'World Leprosy Day'".

Raoul Follereau felt ever indebted to Abbé Balez for the idea of a day of prayer for persons affected by leprosy. This suggestion gave Follereau the idea of organising an annual demonstration on a world scale in support of those affected by leprosy. A year later, on 31st January 1954, Follereau announced the first World Leprosy Day. Ever since then this health day has been celebrated around the world by persons affected by leprosy, usually on the last Sunday in January. Sometimes events spread over several days. In India, World Leprosy Day is observed on 30th January, the anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's assassination. Gandhi's concern for persons affected by leprosy is well-known.<//em>

This year's world leprosy day is on 27th January. At the core of World Leprosy Day is communication.

Follereau wished to foster understanding about leprosy and demonstrate the cruelty of isolating and marginalising persons affected by leprosy. He wished to inform persons that:  

• leprosy is curable; and that


• persons affected by leprosy are entitled to rights like all other persons.

The urgings of Follereau encouraged widespread funding for affected persons by leprosy. He also initiated the creation of a set of Raoul Follereau Associations around the world, which focus attention on the needs of persons affected by leprosy, and was one of the inspirations for the founding of the International Federation of Anti-Leprosy Associations, ILEP. Follereau travelled constantly to both visit persons affected by leprosy and to advocate on their behalf.

Today ILEP is part of a network of organisations which continue, on a daily basis, the communications vital to ensuring that quality leprosy control is sustained within general health services. Their work helps improve the lives of persons affected by leprosy so that they have an opportunity to integrate into society.

ILEP is: 

• working closely with governments, the World Health Organization and staff in its Regional Offices, associations of patients, NGO's and disability organisations
• collaborating and working with experts to standardise technical guidelines for the treatment and cure of leprosy, most importantly and recently the Global Strategy for Further Reducing the Leprosy Burden and Sustaining Leprosy Control Activities 2006-2010 and its Operational Guidelines and the WHO/ILEP Technical Guide on Community-Based Rehabilitation and Leprosy
• assisting with the implementation of the new Global Leprosy Strategy by helping train national programme managers
• collecting and exchanging information between all partners involved in the task of freeing the world of leprosy
• reaching as wide an audience as possible by making freely available on its website teaching and learning materials related to leprosy and other reference materials
• training persons affected by leprosy to be leaders of self-care groups, which teach and motivate their peers in developing a life-time habit of self-care including caring for their wounds   
• dialoguing with leprologists leading to vital research likely to have an important impact on leprosy control such as the current research into a leprosy vaccine being supported by the American Leprosy Missions
• linking their work to the realisation of the Millennium Development Goals, especially those relating to the eradication of extreme poverty, the promotion of gender equality and the fight against diseases  
• channelling concerns for the rights of persons affected by leprosy through the United Nations

Interpersonal channels of communication and the contributions of persons affected by leprosy themselves will make this year's World Leprosy Day. The poems that will be read out, the songs that will be sung, the plays that will be performed, the stories that will be narrated will underline our common humanity and emphasise the need to continue to communicate tirelessly until no person affected by leprosy is denied access to education, housing, the right to work and support their families, nor denied the right to fully participate in the social and cultural life of their communities.

Click below to read the Declaration from the President of ILEP on the occasion of World Leprosy Day 2008:
in English
in Portuguese   

Click on the following link for the WHO/ILEP Technical Guide on Community-Based Rehabilitation and Leprosy:
CBR Guide

Click on the following link to learn how a Secondary School pupil was enabled to continue her schooling: Story of Felista

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