African Hope Organization (AHO) is a non-profit organization committed to the welfare and rehabilitation of Discharged Leprosy Patients (DLP) and the education of their children.
Our mission is to redirect the populace, institutions and government to the need of providing adequate social and economic resources for these people who are often neglected and rejected by their families, friends and the society.
We need the Commitment of All Men of Good Will in order to succeed.
Today, leprosy is curable with multiple drugs therapy (MDT), provided free through the intervention of World Health Organization.
We wish to use this medium to encourage, praise and motivate all those who have been involved in the provision for their rehabilitation and education of their children, and in the fight against leprosy disease and stigmatization.
Our major focus is the provision of educational opportunities for their children who are not infected but affected by the limitations their parents are subjected to due to social and government neglect.
Mycobacterium Leprae (the germ that causes leprosy), has not yet been eradicated, even though the official number of new cases of the infection continues to decrease and at the present time is about 176,176, according to the estimates of the World Health Organization for the year 2015.
In reflecting on the gospel phrase ‘Arise and go; your faith has healed you” (Luke 17:19), the cure from leprosy, should mark the end of stigma and be a new beginning for the Discharged Leprosy Patients and their children, but this has not been the case. We therefore appeal to all charitable people to come to the aid of these children of God, suffering neglect and deprivation due to no fault of theirs.
As an organization in the forefront of this campaign, we pray that God’s never failing love will continue to abide with all who show them kindness and mercy. We also urge the various agencies. (Government, religious, international, private, corporate and individuals) to continue to increase their efforts and work to combat the spread of leprosy.
The DLP who have gone through the difficult pathway of social reintegration, and their children who have benefitted from donations of various charity organizations and attained high level of education, we plead that you should join the campaign to be your brother’s keeper. Do not hide your candles under the bushel, but let the world see your shining light. Those outside the DLP system will learn from you and understand more what the campaign is all about. Your example will mobilize more donors to fight the scourge called leprosy, and the social stigma of DLP.
Indeed, only the involvement of everyone – and at all levels – will enable the transformation of leprosy form being a threat and a scourge into being a memory, however frightening, the past must have been.
We thank all donors and encourage them to continue to contribute in their goodwill to the service of humanity.
The theme for this year is ‘To live is to help to live’ while the project manager is Mr. Louis Nwadialo.