Impact Stories

Nalam (name changed) is from a mining village in Balod District in Chhattisgarh. Nalam is 25 years old, a daily wager, and single lives with his mother and brother’s family. He was diagnosed with MB – BB with shiny skin lesions, thickened ear lobes, and tiny nodules in the back.
Pushpa Hospital at Dallirajhara, an NGO supported by GLRA India conducts health education talks in schools, and in one of such talks, the educator showed the Atlas and a presentation, after seeing the leprosy skin patches, a 7th standard boy stood up and said, my neighbor, having such “dhag” in his back. Later the Para-medical worker visited this boy’s house and identified his neighbor. He has an anesthetic skin lesion over his back and legs, and his ulnar & lateral popliteal nerves were enlarged. The skin smear for AFB was positive, MB MDT started in June 2017, nerve assessment was done every month, and he has completed treatment in July 2018 without any disability or weakness.

Here a schoolboy becomes a change agent, understands the disease, and helped the para-medicals to reach the affected person in time.