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Bapuji
Leprosy Colony |
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On the edge of the town of Parvartipuram,
between the paupers’ burial ground and the municipal rubbish
dump, there is a leprosy colony. Built in 1987, originally many
families lived there. However, most moved away to the big cities
and temple towns, where it is easier to obtain money by begging
than it is in a small town.
Presently, only old and infirm
patients live at Bapuji Colony. They are suffering with chronic
ulcers, have missing digits, are amputees, are blind or old.
Brighter
Future arrived, and the patients had their first
ulcer treatment and medical advice in seven years. We agreed to
come regularly to treat the residents’ wounds and ulcers.
Some clothes were distributed and medicines given for general
health problems. Each Sunday the director and Rajeshwari, a qualified
nurse, made the two hour journey by train to Pavartipuram, then
by rickshaw to the colony.
In 2006, Brighter
Future appointed a nurse/dresser to visit the
colony twice a week to treat ulcers and give general medicines.
Brighter
Future supplies special footwear for Bapuji residents
with deformed and ulcerated feet.
Now Brighter
Future provides a paramedic twice a week to dress
ulcers and provide general medicines as well. He also arranges
for ‘luxuries’ such as a shave or a haircut, which
are invaluable to someone with no hands!
We also provide food grains, dahl
and oil to supplement their small incomes.
Brighter
Future cemented the floor of the church/community
centre, so that sand does not get into the food or the patients’
wounds
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Three children
were taken into the Rainbow Children’s
Home so that they could be properly fed and given
the opportunity to go to school and be educated.
Brighter
Future raised the money for Malayya to have an
essential amputation, as his leg was badly infected. |
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The Summer Feeding Programme
was started in 2005, so save the colony residents the need to
beg in order to supplement their meagre, irregularly paid government
pension of 100 rupees (£1.25) per month.
In summer, the heat can exceed a blistering
100 degree Fahrenheit !
It costs £10 per month per person to provide two
nutritious meals a day. There are eighteen patients who
require this help. Some of them have no hands, some are in danger
of burning hands and feet on hot pots, or the fire. They have
no sensation and burns can easily become infected, leading to
loss of fingers, toes or limbs.
Anaesthetic hands and feet can lead to
loss of fingers, or amputated legs, as infection spreads through
the limb. There is no sensation, so no warning pain signals!
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For elderly and infirm patients, it was dangerous to use the big
open well. It would often dry up in summer, as it was not deep enough.
The local government stand pipe provided water only for two hours
a day, twice a week. As a temporary measure,
Brighter Future rebuilt the well head with
a pulley system, so that residents can raise water easily and safely.
A permanent bore well was dug in August 2008 to provide clean water.
It is now 100 feet deep, so it does not dry up in the summer. |
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Brighter Future started
a kitchen garden, where seeds were planted and chickens kept. Sadly,
it was not successful, as the tree and shrub boundary did not keep
out buffaloes, pigs and foxes, who ate or trampled the plants.
For its future success, a post and wire fence, needing 76 concrete
posts and 9000 metres of wire, plus a cattle grid at the entrance,
is required.
Our sponsors and donors are welcome to visit our projects, to
see where their money goes and the good it does. Maggie Wood came
out from England to see Prem Nivas,
our home for HIV+ orphans and came to Bapuji.
When she saw the state of some of the old protheses and walking
aids, Maggie generously paid to have new ones fitted at Salur
Leprosy Hospital.
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A Brighter Future
supporter gave a rickshaw to provide transport take sick patients
to hospital when the need arises.
For the rest of the time, it is hired out to two families at
10 rupees a day, so that they may earn a living. The rental money
earned this way is put into the feeding programme.
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Manja with the rickshaw
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Brighter Future
supporters have enabled thirty-five patients to have their sight
restored by cataract operations. Several more at present are on
the waiting list. Operations, using an inserted lens, cost £15
each.
Many
people in the developed world do not realise that leprosy still
exists, much less the devastating effects it has on its victims.
Relatively small amounts of money, in our terms,
can provide much needed relief to the sufferers. A monthly payment
of as little as £3 will provide medicines for a month for
one sufferer. Ten pounds a month will provide two nutritious meals
a day for an elderly person.
We will happily accept whatever you can afford
to give, in our fight to make the lives of these people less painful
in every sense of the word.
If you are a tax-payer, Gift Aid will make your
donation worth even more - please download a Donation
form and a Gift
Aid form and help make a difference!
Click here
to see our plans and our progress. |
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