KIT Blog

In times like these, it is important to celebrate the wins. Our victories, whether small or large, can play a positive part in maintaining mental health every day. We can celebrate The Good News of Jesus Christ. We can celebrate that leprosy is curable! The past 40 years has seen more than 16 million leprosy patients treated with Multi-Drug Therapy (MDT) since its introduction. All these are wonderous victories! Together we’ve made such progress towards a world free from child leprosy. Together we have a real shot of achieving No Child with Leprosy by 2035. Thank you! With progress, though, we must remain diligent. As leprosy disappears, its signs and symptoms are being forgotten – even in places where leprosy continues to ruin lives… like Satendra’s homeland of Nepal. When local doctors couldn’t give Satendra answers to his ‘mystery illness’, leprosy continued to have free rein and wreak havoc on his young body. The patches on his arms resembling severe burns were very painful. As frightening as this was, the damage to his extremities was worse. He began losing strength in his fingers and feet. This terrified him. He could no longer hold a pen. He had to leave school. He couldn’t play with his friends. We can imagine Satendra may have felt all alone and had lost hope for the future. Satendra’s despair and depression broke his young heart. Beyond consoling, he resorted to taking poison to end his suffering forever. His family found him in time for a hospital to save his life, but still no answers to his illness came and he continued living with depression brought on by his situation… Finally, Satendra was found! Like the Lost Son returning, there was joyous celebrating as Satendra and his family came to Anandaban, the highly skilled leprosy hospital you support in Nepal. The mystery was solved: Satendra had leprosy. Satendra’s cure journey began. Praise God, with a full course of MDT, victory over leprosy is just around the corner for Satendra! Whilst Satendra is almost cured of leprosy, the cure for the psychological damage to his mental health will be a much longer journey. Please pray for Satendra and his journey to full restoration. Please continue to pray for a world where no child suffers leprosy by 2035. Thank you.