Swiss Emmaus India
ILEP’S MEMBER ASSOCIATIONS ARE WORKING
TOGETHER FOR A WORLD FREE FROM LEPROSY
Swiss Emmaus Leprosy Relief Work India (SEI) is a non-profit development organization that works with a mandate of ‘health for the poorest’. Registered as an Indian Trust, SEI India started its work in 1960 and initially worked to eliminate leprosy as a public health problem. For the past 65 years, SEI has dedicated itself to improving the lives of people affected by leprosy and other poverty related diseases through social and medical rehabilitation.
SEI India works mainly in collaboration with the Central and State Governments Leprosy Elimination Program in partnership with other persons with disability (OPD) organizations. SEI has its presence in 5 states namely Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, & Chandigarh supporting these states in reaching out to the last case of leprosy in the endemic areas.
SEI originally concentrated on eliminating leprosy as a public health problem, supporting tertiary care leprosy hospitals and field based projects as well . Over time, SEI has evolved to extend exclusive field-based, community-oriented support, ensuring that marginalised populations have equitable access to healthcare services, essential medicines, and social protection.
Currently SEI supports one tertiary care centre in Andhra Pradesh that continues to carry out reconstructive surgery and provide MCR footwear.
Since 2024, SEI is implementing a community-based program in Chhattisgarh(Aagaaz) with the aim to improve leprosy health outcomes and wellbeing of communities in Durg district of Chhattisgarh state in India. The project focusses on early case detection and disability prevention & management. SEI has been assigned 3 additional districts Raigarh, Sarangarh and Mahasamund in Chhattisgarh state by the state government to support the state in leprosy elimination.
SEI India has also started a new mental health project focussed on providing counselling services to people affected by leprosy. This includes individual, family, and group counselling sessions provided to people and their families. In addition, SEI will also train Government healthcare workers in providing counselling to people affected by leprosy at pan India level. A online counselling training curriculum has been developed that will be used to train government healthcare workers.
SEI India has initiated an anti-microbial resistance (AMR) study in collaboration with Schieffelin Institute of Health-Research & Leprosy Centre, Vellore, India.
Finally, SEI India has also initiated a project to follow-up patients on multi-drug therapy to further understand the long-term impact of treatment on people affected by leprosy. Last but not the least, SEI is also designing a large scale IEC campaign that aims to sensitize Indians and make them aware about leprosy.
SEI recognises the deep interlinkages between poverty, social exclusion, disability, and poor health. Its current work emphasises health systems strengthening, integrated service delivery, psychosocial support, and building capacities of government health workers to improve the continuum of care for people affected by leprosy.
