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| Creating Awareness |
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No amount of efforts at social acceptance and rehabilitation through
capacity building and financial assistance will be sustainable or
successful without the eradication of the social stigma against leprosy.
While education, training and employment will facilitate social
acceptance, concerted efforts will have to be made to disseminate the
scientific facts about leprosy which demonstrate the baselessness of the
fear of contagion or divine retribution on which the stigma is based.
Creating awareness about the true nature of the disease among the
general public as well as focused groups such as schoolchildren,
doctors, media persons etc will an important and continuous part of
SILF’s work plan.
Here SILF plans to work with government
departments, other NGO partners, media persons as well as the corporate
sector to devise means of reaching out to as large an audience as
possible.
At the same time, SILF will adopt a human rights approach to
discrimination against leprosy affected people. must be treated as
aTogether with advocacy and networking, SILF proposes to carry the
message againThere are different ways in which the dissemination of
scientific information about the disease can take place. In addition to
a general awareness campaign, it is important to target specific groups
Advocacy and awareness building Prejudices are based on fears arising
out ignorance and misinformation and can be overcome only through
persistent and credible efforts at disseminating scientific facts about
leprosy. Changing social attitudes and mindsets is a formidable task and
requires a multipronged approach, in which the government, Ngo’s the
media and the corporate sector all have an important role to play that
includes will be an integral element of SILF’s strategy to mainstream
those affected by leprosy. It is surprising how widespread the lack of
knowledge is, even among the educated and how deep seated are the fears
and prejudices.
These will have to be tackled with consistent efforts to spread the
scientific facts about leprosy among different sections of society. SILF
proposes to reach out to people in all walks of life to encourage them
to become ambassadors for spreading the truth about leprosy to others.
We propose to reach out to schools and colleges, to the media, to
medical institutions, to politicians and parliamentarians, to lawyers
and social activists, to local government institutions and employers as
well as corporate houses.
At the same time, SILF will engage in advocacy to provide a legal and
institutional framework that in no way discriminates against the rights
of the leprosy affected as equal citizens of the country, to ensure that
any violation of the rights of the leprosy affected is treated as a
human rights issue, to set in place mechanisms of redress of grievances
and punitive action and above all to demonstrate through successes of
those who have struggled against all odds, that change is not only
desirable but feasible too.
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