The Leprosy Mission is launching a new collecting box to replace the well-known L box. It’s not quite L-shaped but should do the job just as well!

The hexagonal blue boxes are made by people affected by leprosy from recycled rags at a TLM vocational training centre in Vizianagaram, India. The rags include offcuts of fabric from the tailoring course at the same training centre.

The students involved in the production of the boxes have either had leprosy or come from families whose earning ability has been diminished by the disease. A slip of paper inside each box tells the story of one of the students, written in their own words.

The sticker on the new collapsible box makes the link to the old L-shaped box. We received many requests from supporters for a larger, more robust box capable of taking £1 and £2 coins. This new design is the result.  As we collect for people affected by leprosy in a box made by them to provide funds for leprosy work, such as more places at the training centre, the circle continues.

L boxes haven’t always been used for their intended purpose. A supporter confessed to us that her children once used her L box as a coffin, in order to give their pet budgie a Christian burial. One day she saw a pile of money on the sideboard. She couldn’t remember putting it there, and then noticed that the L box had gone missing. When the children came in from school she asked them if they’d seen it. ‘Mummy’, said her son, ‘we emptied the L box to put Sparky in it. We wanted him to have a church box so we could bury him in the garden and so that he will go to Jesus.’

Do you have a story of how the former L box was used differently to its intended purpose?

TLM receipt book, collectors sheets and paying-in slips.