After a life of stigma, 25 elderly leprosy patients face homelessness. Donate now to help them

“A mob showed up at my house and asked me to leave the village before dawn. This was a few days after I was diagnosed with leprosy and the news spread. First, I lost my job as my employer asked me never to go back to work. Shops stopped selling us grains and people stopped talking to us. Within a few days I was chased out along with my wife and baby boy”, recalls Badal. His family had nowhere to go, but Raphael offered a home and treatment for Badal.

Stigma and even violence are something many leprosy patients face because of the disease and many misconceptions surrounding it. But Shiv Sadan, run by our NGO partner Raphael Ryder Cheshire International Centre, has been the hope and saviour of hundreds of homeless leprosy patients, over the last six decades. But with years of wear and tear, Shiv Sadan is crumbling, leaving 25 residents on the verge of landing on the streets again. 

Help Raphael rebuild the only home 25 leprosy patients have and save them from returning to a helpless life of begging on the streets. Donate now.

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Charitable donations to this fundraising campaign are tax exempted under 80G of the Income Tax Act (India), & 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (USA). 

Shunned by society, leprosy patients fight for a roof

“We have around 25 patients at Shiv Sadan, but even though they are completely cured of leprosy, people are unwilling to give them a job. Many wish to work as domestic help, but people do not allow them even to enter their homes, says Priyo Lall, CEO of the non-profit. She questions, “what are these people to do if not beg?” 

People with leprosy are often driven out of their homes and villages and are compelled to beg on city streets for survival. According to Lall, “Even their own children don’t want their parents to come to their house. They are completely ostracised. For decades they have been suffering the stigma of being a leprosy patient and discrimination from society.” Lall says that, but for Shiv Sadan, over 200 leprosy patients would have still been on the streets, and their families also would not have any other option but to beg.

Donate to NGO Raphael 

While explaining the plight of homeless leprosy patients, Lall says, “These patients, although recovered from leprosy, still have severe deformities. Many patients have open wounds, and if they return to the streets, they will get infected. Even after getting cured of leprosy, their treatment must continue lifelong. Raphael has taken up full responsibility for their health and well-being, whether it be their food, shelter, or medical needs.”

The homes that Raphael built for the leprosy patients are now over 50 years old and are crumbling to pieces. “We are having to tie plastic sheets above beds to protect patients from the dripping ceiling, during monsoons. If we don’t get the support, these people will have nowhere else to go. We need urgent help to save these elderly leprosy patients from going homeless. Donate generously”

Donate to this fundraiser by Give, India’s largest and most trusted online giving platform, to support Raphael rebuilding a home for helpless leprosy patients so they can be saved from a life of homelessness and begging.