Wort und Tat

Leprosy sufferers

Leprosy sufferers need our help

Running away or helping? It was 1977 when Dr. Heinz-Horst Deichmann had to make this decision in India. Then he was faced with several hundred leprosy sufferers: their limbs maimed, their bodies covered with festering sores, abandoned by the community. The sentence in Mark 1:41 "Jesus was filled with compassion" took on a new meaning. This was the beginning of the work of wortundtat.

Together with its partner AMG India and a pharmaceutical company, wortundtat is participating in the Global Leprosy Programme of the World Health Organization. AMG set up villages for the sick, who were considered unclean, gave them shelter, food and the opportunity to do simple work. Those, who still had their own four walls, received food, vitamins and other everyday necessities.

Many thousand people could be helped that way: The disease of the ones who were already infected did not develop further. The rate of new infections fell. Fewer and fewer people were segregated because of their illness. Today, many experts regard leprosy as being eradicated. The aid programmes of wortundtat also need to deal with fewer people who contracted the disease just recently. However, the ones who have recovered already still need looking after. Several thousand people live in residential facilities or are cared for at home by AMG.

In November 2010, food rations were once again distributed in Bommuru, where Dr. Deichmann had his first meeting with leprosy sufferers. Many, who came to this meeting, have been supported by wortundtat since 1977. Without this help many would long have been dead. But instead they come regularly and many of them attend the church service together with the AMG staff.

This unspectacular work is not suitable for great media attention. Looking at these people is not always easy. Who likes to look at hands without fingers, legs without feet, a bleared eye or a disfigured face? That is why wortundtat wants to support these people. That is why we want to tell you about them:

These people need us.

Do you want to help? Only € 7 is enough to provide a sick person with basic food, soap and other important things for a month.

Donation accounts:
Word & Deed
18 Main Street
Lubenham
Market Harborough
LE16 9TF

Barclays Bank plc - Sort Code: 20-48-42 - Account: 60720224