66 1 looked down and there at my feet was a leper"

What the Guild is
St Francis Leprosy Guild is our own Catholic body for supporting leprosy work throughout the world. It is under the patronage of Cardinal Basil Hume, Cardinal O'Fiaich. Cardinal Grey and the Most Rev Pro-Nuncio Bruno Heim as well as members of the Hierarchy of England and Wales, of Ireland and of Scotland. Naturally we of the Guild depend very much on support from Catholic sources.
Direct links
The secret of the Guild's success is that it keeps in close touch with missionaries — priests. brothers. sisters, layworkers (doctors, nurses, technicians) — who are working right in amongst the victims of leprosy. This means that the very best is got out of every El of the funds, since allocations are channelled direct from the Guild headquarters (staffed by Sisters) to missionaries who are actually caring for the lepers and, believe us, need to make every penny go as tar as possible!
It also enables the Guild to make the widest possible impact on the world of leprosy. The reports from the centres, received regutarly, show that in this current year (1984) the Guild is helping missionaries and layworkers to care for more than 145,000 men, women and children afflicted with leprosy.
The centres being -helped are to be found in China, Korea, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, New Guinea. Burma. Bangladesh. Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Zaire, Togo. Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Sudan, Kenya, Congo Republic, Mauritius, Lesotho, Ethiopia, Madagasca, South Africa, Colombia; Brazil.
Gigantic task
A fully established centre has its clinic, hospital, school for leprosy children, rehabilitation activities, dwellings for the aged burnt-out cases. But the centres are also responsible for a vast area, perhaps thirty miles or more around. Far flung villages have to be visited. Sometimes whole households bear the tragic scars and deformities of leprosy. The visit of the missionary brings a moment of joy and hope to many a leper family. And often new groups of lepers are discovered, driven away from their villages.
Voices from the leprosy world
1. "I looked down and there at my feet was a leper. He had dragged himself along in the inches-deep dust and grit, He was looking up, his eyes met mine. It was a moment of truth I shall never forget. It was not the poor man's deformity. I had seen worse. It was the poignancy and bewilderment of having my fellow human being and my brother in Christ lying at my feet. cut off from humanity by his disease."
"He had lost all aspect of human dignity. His feet and legs were ruined. He would never stand like other men. And he had no fingers to clasp a support. His features should have been mobile and expressive like other men's. But sores and swellings held his face in an expressionless, masklike rigidity. Only his eyes moved in a hungry quest that would never be answered. He was too far gone."
-And beyond the Meeting of our eyes there loomed the vision of • more and more young people destined, unless more help comes, to lie one day at someone's feet in the dust and the indignity of a scubland path."
2. "What hits you hardest is to see what leprosy does to a little child, A mark appears on the child's arm. You know what that means. And you watch and watch with dread for the first signs of the ravages of leprosy on the child's fingers and face and you look round at the old, old leprosy sufferers with their masklike faces and ruined limbs, and you try not to picture the kind of life that awaits that child. The agony of it is that it need not bleep.roTsoy..th, ink that lust £5 might save a Child, treated in time. from a lifetime of 3. "Selina stood at the clinic door at the leprosy centre. At her side was her eighteen.month old son. Six months earlier she had been found to have leprosy. Only three days ago her second child, a babe in arms, had died. Her husband had driven her out of the miserable cellar which was their home. Her general condition. coupled with ieprosy, made it impossible for her to work. The Sisters at the centre took her in for treatment along with her little boy. In due course she reached the stage when the early treated patients can go home. Heart-broken Selina had no home and no one who cared. The Sisters were able to put up a bit of a home for her — two tiny rooms made of galvanised sheeting. They continue to care for her.
friends,"
4. are not only the local caring medical staff. They are her closest 4. 'Strong pains started in my arms and legs. I went to our medicine man. He did me no good. Some miles through the bush was a mission. One day from there came a doctor for leprosy. The Sister showed him my swollen feel. Now I could not feel any pain. Even when a dirty thorn stuck in them I could not feel. It is leprosy. I must go to hospital. But it is long. I cannot walk. My son carried me on his bicycle. A whole year I was there. My feet became the right size again. went home to my village. But the doctor said I must go often to the centre. The leprosy is only asleep. Without medicine it will wake up again. It would be very bad. I must wait many years.
5. "My mother had leprosy. We saw the marks come on her skin. Then we knew. The medicine man made some liquid from roots. He made her drink some and some he poured on her arms and legs. tt was very hot liquid. It burned her and made wounds. My mother suffered very much for many months and the wounds killed her."
"Guild" not just "Fund"
When you make a donation to Sr Francis Leprosy Guild you are not Only making a
contribution to a fund, you are joining a great 'family' consisting of missionaries and others who are caring for lepers, the poor victims of leprosy themselves, the staff and committee at headquarters here at home and all the other benefactors like yourself. Our letter trays
bulge with letters of gratitude to you straight irons the heart of the world of leprosy. Gratitude expressed in grayer
and dedicated sacrifice. Letters that speak of the need for continued help but
also begging your prayers for the missionaries and the leprosy sufferers. The inspiration? Our Lord's assurance that what we do for his least ones he accepts as done to himself.
It is a 'family' which proclaims the charity of Christ to the world. Here are just three letters out of our letter tray.
"We are a group of leprosy patients. We are receiving needed treatment from the Sisters. By knowing from them that all these things are gifts of St Francis Leprosy Guild we felt glad. And together we are praying for the welfare and blessing of you.
"Thank you and all the generous" benefactors of St Francis Leprosy Guild
who help my poor leprosy patients to lead a happy life. They are deeply grateful to each and everyone of you for all the assistance I get from you to keep their body and soul together. Every week after Mass I loin them in their prayers
and sacrifice to plead with our Lord to bless you more for sharing your gifts and your love with my lepers."
"Practically every day there would be a pathetic little group waiting to be
admitted for treatment and I would try not to catch their pleading eyes. This turrung away of the afflicted through lack of medicines and inadequate facilities was the hardest part of my
leprosy nursing ."