Who we are

• With over 90 years of experience, we are one of the world’s leading authorities on leprosy
• Lepra (originally named The British Empire Leprosy Relief Association) was set up to find a cure for leprosy. Since achieving this, we have continued to pioneer many new ways of working to tackle this disease, which have been adopted governments and international organisations
• Our vision is to reach a day when leprosy no longer destroys lives
• Our purpose is to give people affected by leprosy the knowledge, support and skills they need to transform their lives
• Our focus is to beat leprosy by 2025 – making sure it is easily diagnosed and treated, causes no disability and attracts no stigma
• We have a global reputation for scientific research and have our own research centre in India
• Each quarter, we publish Leprosy Review – the only printed English language journal on leprosy

What we do - general

• We work with communities in Bangladesh, India and Mozambique to find, diagnose and treat people affected by leprosy
• Many of our projects are in remote, underdeveloped areas, where people have very limited access to healthcare
• We  support people affected by leprosy and LF to live healthy, economically secure lives as active members of their communities
• Our work delivers real change to people’s lives – whether it is providing children with the treatment to allow them to return to school free from leprosy and disability, or giving adults the skills needed to set up a new business when a leprosy-related disability prevents them returning to their previous job
• Many more people urgently need our help.  With more money, we can reach more people, and help them to restore their lives. Together we can beat leprosy in this generation

We aim to beat leprosy by pushing for early detection, reducing stigma through health education and supporting people disabled by leprosy. We do this through a range of innovative, community-based programmes:

Early detection and treatment

• Early detection and  diagnosis is the key to beating leprosy
• We train government healthcare workers, volunteers, teachers and informal healthcare providers to recognise the symptoms of leprosy
• Through our active case finding we are leading the way in finding the hidden people living with undiagnosed leprosy
• We provide life changing treatment, from the multi drug therapy to cure the disease,  through to ulcer care and surgery to allow people disabled by leprosy to regain their mobility and independence

Disability management

• We teach people affected by leprosy self-care training, to help them care for their bodies and reduce the risk of infection and further disability
• We provide custom-made protective shoes to help people to walk and work without fear of injury, infection or stigma

Reducing stigma

• Through health education we can reduce the stigma surrounding leprosy.  This is often caused by ignorance, myths, superstition or fear
• We work with thousands of local volunteers, bringing health services and information to their communities
• We work with communities, NGOs and governments to improve the rights of people affected by leprosy