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With a view to a better awareness of leprosy of public authorities and the communities on leprosy, SYM in collaboration with Action Damien has, on 26-28 February 2020, organized an exchange meeting with joint awareness committees in the localities of Kizuka in commune Rumonge, Mudende in commune Buyengero and Ndava-Nyamitanga in commune Buganda in order to contribute positively to the prevention of leprosy in their daily activities.

The joint awareness-raising committee is made up of members of the provincial health Board (PHB), health district executives, municipal administrators, communal directors of education, school principals, and health Centre owners, health promotion technicians, religious leaders, and local chiefs. Their main role is to raise awareness about leprosy awareness in order to detect cases of this disease early in their surroundings.

Leprosy patients with foot sores practice self-care

In an exchange setting, doctor and project coordinator at SYM, after showing the simple techniques to detect the clinical signs of leprosy, urged all the participants to make their contribution by inserting in their programs awareness sessions on leprosy so that the whole community is aware of the danger that can occur for leprosy that is not detected very early.
“Through these sessions, we want everyone in his or her role to be able to inform/sensitize the community about the clinical signs of leprosy, but also to guide people they suspected of having that disease to arrive as soon as possible in health facilities for an appropriate diagnosis” says Dr. Tharcisse, project coordinator at SYM.

The participants at this meeting warmly thanked Service Yezu Mwiza and Action Damien for their good deeds towards people affected by leprosy and promised to get involved in order to fight or even eradicate leprosy in their workplaces and suggested that in the future in such a meeting, Community Health Workers should be invited as they are much closer to the community.