Leprosy and Health-related Stigmas

Christina Less

Often forced into isolation…

Mistreatment due to human difference

social disqualification based on certain health problems

Health-related stigma:

“We refuse to allow others to define ourselves, our humanity, by a disease.”~Bernard Ka’owakaokalani

A seemingly harmless discoloration

is the beginning of

disease.

Permanent limb, skin, and nerve damage.

the diseased do not seek out treatment.

Scared of social discrimination…

The meaning has a greater impact.

India is a society rooted in a conditioned

set of beliefs.

Whole families are forced from their villages.

“Cries of mourning, as if he was already dead.”

There are more than a thousand leper colonies in India today.

We need to provide relief.

A basis for transforming the way that lepers live.

Giving them a new way of life.

A disease of generations: families are affected by leprosy as well.