Community engagement

The New Face for Leprosy exhibition, hosted by Lepra, challenges perceptions of this neglected tropical disease. It presents portraits and real-life stories highlighting the physical, social and emotional impact of leprosy, aiming to ‘touch hearts as well as minds’.

It focuses on positive messaging at Lepra’s health centres in India and Bangladesh and has now been exhibited in different venues. The organisation encourages others to host the pictures.

Bizly Rani Das was affected by leprosy and is now trained in psycho-social support.
© Tom Bradley/New Face for Leprosy exhibition.

The photos were taken in a participatory and collaborative way, asking participants to select key pictures and write about their life experience.

Pictured here is Bizly Rani Das. She was affected by leprosy and works locally, going door to door to identify new cases. She is a trained mental motivator and gives her time to actively listen to people affected by the disease, providing psycho-social support.

As part of Sightsavers’ ‘Connecting the Dots’ youth economic empowerment programme in Uganda, a behaviour change strategy was developed to reduce stigma faced by young people with disabilities.

The aim was to improve the willingness of consumers to buy their products, address social and structural stigma, and tackle internalised stigma through improving their self-esteem and confidence.

Careers fairs enabled students to showcase their skills.

Community engagement and home visits were two components of this multi-faceted programme. Engagement activities were conducted to address stigmatising attitudes and behaviour, which included:

• Careers fairs to create awareness and showcase the skills of the young people, featuring music, dance, display and auctions of products, tools and skills, testimonies, motivational speeches and team-building activities. It also provided an opportunity for peer support.
• Private sector breakfast meetings enabling employers and financial institutions to hear about the skills of young people with disabilities, plus testimonies from employers and customers with disabilities. The aim was to improve attitudes about the importance of including people with disabilities in financial services and economic opportunities.
• Community dialogues, during which people with disabilities, community members and key stakeholders are brought together to discuss barriers and solutions. Parent networks also engaged with these dialogues.
• Radio talk shows aimed to challenge misconceptions by sharing real stories of people with disabilities engaged in productive work, creating awareness about the barriers they face in accessing economic opportunities and rallying support for them.

The inclusive family planning programme in Nigeria has a multi-faceted approach to stigma reduction, linked to promoting greater use of family planning services for people with disabilities.

Community engagement approaches include an interactive board game, which is typically facilitated by inclusive champions. It is often played in informal community settings particularly in Majalisa, a common gathering spot for men in northern Nigeria. The board game promotes messages of disability rights and dialogue with men in the community.

The board game is one of several methods used to promote positive messsages.

This technique is reinforced by a combination of other approaches, including:

• Mass media and social media in various formats
• Peer support groups by inclusion champions
• Home visits