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MAITRI field coordinator Binod Patra and teacher Ganesh Sharma raising awareness about leprosy in a village, Gaya District, Bihar, India, February 2019. Photo by MAITRI.
FPMT project MAITRI Charitable Trust in Bodhgaya, Gaya District, Bihar, India, celebrated World Leprosy Day on January 27, 2019. The day’s activities included a visit to MAITRI’s leprosy awareness stall by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. MAITRI’s director, Adriana Ferranti, shares the story.
World Leprosy Day is not only a day of reflection on the victims of this devastating disease. It is first and foremost a day of solidarity with our brothers and sisters who are afflicted by it.
Leprosy is still widespread in India and particularly in Bihar. It can affect anybody: rich and poor; high and low caste; male and female; child and adult; educated and uneducated.
MAITRI leprosy patients Shankar Mahto, Kamlesh Manjhi who was discharged in February 2019 after more than two months of treatment, and Ramswaroop Paswan, MAITRI, Bodhgaya, Gaya District, Bihar, India, February 2019. Photo by MAITRI.
Leprosy is a communicable disease, but one of the least contagious ones. It is caused by the germ Mycobacterium leprae; it is neither hereditary nor a curse. If left untreated, the intense inflammation that causes severe swelling of the person’s features can lead to permanent scars and deformities. However, if treated with regular care and medication, the recovery can be full.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche visiting MAITRI’s leprosy awareness stall near the Mahabodhi Temple, Bodhgaya, Gaya District, Bihar, India, February 2019. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
MAITRI’s celebration of World Leprosy Day traditionally consists of an awareness campaign about the disease and its treatment in most provinces of Gaya District. Two teams of paramedical workers travel on two jeeps equipped with loudspeakers, heading to different destinations in the district, visiting villages in forgotten corners of the hinterland. The workers interact with the population, distribute leaflets, and possibly detect new cases.
By 3 p.m., both jeeps converge at our stall in Bodhgaya, where a worker has kept the MAITRI stall open since early morning. All field staff—joined by the teachers and myself—continue addressing the public and distributing leaflets until 5 p.m.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche advising Adriana Ferranti and MAITRI staff, Bodhgaya, Gaya District, Bihar, India, February 2019. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
On the teams’ return to the campus, the celebration ends with the distribution of samosas and sweets to MAITRI inpatients, the living representatives for whom MAITRI was created almost thirty years ago.
In 2018 we assessed 586 high risk cases; instructed 792 disabled cases for self-care; and trained 576 deformed patients, 2,983 community members and 417 government staff members. MAITRI held thirty-four camps to distribute sandals and dressing kits. We assisted the government with bi-monthly leprosy sections at the government-run public health clinics and carried out education programs across the region. At MAITRI Hospital fifty-nine ulcer cases and two reaction cases have been admitted.
Lama Zopa with Adriana Ferranti and MAITRI staff, Bodhgaya, Gaya District, Bihar, India, February 2019. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
For more information about MAITRI Charitable Trust, visit their website:
http://www.maitri-bodhgaya.org/home/
For the seventh year, due to the kindness of a benefactor, the FPMT Social Services Fund has been offering substantial grants to MAITRI in support of their incredible and compassionate work and service.
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