Recently, I visited a school at the Sivananda Rehabilitation
Center with a group of women from the Twin-Cities Expat Association (TEA). We did crafts and sang songs with the
children. The children seemed to enjoy
it a lot, but I think we were blessed more by them. They are so open and sweet.
The main reason for this post is that I wanted to give you a
little information on Sivananda and what they do there, because I found it
fascinating. Sivananda Rehabilitation
Home (just outside of Hyderabad) is a place of refuge for children and adults who
are suffering or have been affected by leprosy, TB, and HIV/Aids. I never really thought about leprosy still
being an issue, but there were approximately 600 leper colonies in India as of
2008.
There is still a stigma associated with leprosy. When a person is discovered to have it, they
are often run out of their villages, then beaten and shunned. However, Leprosy has a high cure rate if the
person seeks treatment. Founded in 1958, Sivananda provides free food, shelter, education and
clothing for over 500 destitute people who, although cured of leprosy, have
nowhere else to go.
