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First Lady visits the Leprosy Hospital
20th December 2010
On 20th December 2010, Sri Lanka’s First Lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa visited the leprosy hospital in Hendala, Wattala. Mrs.Rajapaksa also visited the carpentry workshop site which is one of the livelihood assistance projects implemented by Alliance Develoment Trust (ADT) for the inmates of this hospital. Mrs Rajapaksa spoke with the patients, staff and commended ADT’s efforts in assisting the leprosy patients with livelihood opportunities.
The Leprosy Hospital in Hendala Wattala, is 302 years old. It was set up in 1708 by Dutch Christian missionaries. Although leprosy was eliminated in 1995 there is still a social stigma attached to this disease in the minds of our citizens.
ADT visited the Hendala Leprosy Hospital in 2008 where there were 50 patients. ADT understood that the patients were very much a part of our society and they too can work and contribute to the betterment of our country.
Thereafter the patients were trained through our Micro Finance Programme, loan and material grants were made available to them. With that assistance 19 beneficiaries in Hendala, four in Batticaloa, and five in the Southern Province started small-scale enterprises. Altogether 35 beneficiaries have started small businesses in carpentry, bicycle / electrical appliances repairing, weaving table cloths / coir ropes, and handmade vesak (festival) lanterns and envelopes.
ADT has become a beacon of light to former leprosy patients who unfortunately are still a forgotten community in our ‘modern’ society.
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