Offering a glimmer of hope
A community affected by leprosy
living under a busy flyover in Mumbai
is just a handful of the country's
millions living in extreme poverty. As
well as suffering physical poverty,
leprosy has caused the hands of
many to become permanently clawed,
so much so that their only use for
them is to beg. Due to the stigma
surrounding leprosy, they are
shunned even by other beggars.
A glimmer of hope, however, is
offered to this Mumbai community in
the form of an out-of-service
ambulance which moves across
the city six days a week, setting up
in underpasses and on backstreets.
Funded by The Leprosy Mission and
known as the Karuna project clinic,
doctors and nurses on board tend to
the poor and disaffected, including
cleaning and dressing the ulcerated
feet of those affected by leprosy.
They also seek to diagnose the
disease early in order to offer
multidrug therapy before patients
begin to suffer nerve damage which,
left untreated, can lead to major
injuries and eventually amputation.
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