The Leprosy Mission

The Leprosy Mission is an international Christian charity working towards the eradication of the causes and consequences of leprosy. It is active in over 50 countries around the world.

The Leprosy Mission is a member of ILEP (International Federation of Anti-Leprosy Associations) and Global Connections, a network of mission and development agencies.

In December 1869, Wellesley Bailey, a young Irishman who was working as a teacher in the Punjab in India, came across a row of huts inhabited by men and women with serious disabilities and physical deformities. A colleague explained that they were suffering from leprosy. Bailey was shocked by what he saw. Afterwards he wrote:'I almost shuddered, yet I was at the same time fascinated, and I felt that if there was ever a Christlike work in the world it was to go amongst these poor sufferers and bring them the consolation of the gospel.'

On returning to Ireland in 1874, Wellesley Bailey and his wife Alice began to hold meetings in Dublin to tell friends about their experiences of people affected by leprosy in India, and to raise money'. And so The Leprosy Mission, or The Mission to Lepers as it was known then, was born.

1874-1893 – The Baileys travel extensively in India to see the need of people affected by leprosy and to encourage support work.

1891 – Wellesley Bailey visits Mandalay, Burma, to open the first TLM home for leprosy-affected people outside India.

1917 – The Mission has extended its work throughout India and the Far East and now has 87 programmes in 12 countries, with support offices in eight countries.

1940s – In South India, Paul Brand pioneers medical research and reconstructive surgery on leprosy deformities in hands and feet.

1940s-50s – The first effective cure for leprosy, Dapsone, is introduced. Over the next 15 years, millions of patients are successfully treated.

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