Project Karuna

In spite of the publicity and teaching regarding how people are infected with leprosy and how it can be treated, society is still ignorant and prejudiced against those who suffer or have suffered with the disease. This leads to rejection and refusal of basic needs both in the community and public areas like hospitals, schools and work places. This is also true for those who have been affected because they are relatives of an infected person.
Because of this rejection very few children from this community go to school and those who do attend school go to the government run schools. The medium of education is in the local language and the standard of education is very poor.
In 2004, Michael and Michelle felt the Lord direct them to go to Gulbarga to serve the leprosy affected people in Gandhi leprosy colony. They worked diligently providing basic medical services and acting as advocates for the people with hospitals and government.
In 2008, the Lord spoke to Michael and Michelle to change the mindset of the leprosy affected community by arranging to educate the children. The Lord opened up doors in Goa and Bangalore so these children could stay in good Christian residential homes. With the permission of the parents, the children were enrolled in local schools where the medium of instruction was English. The children learned discipline and were instructed in biblical principles as well as attending good English medium schools. The children also learn conversational English, general and table manners, and praying to the Lord. They attend Sunday worship at a local church.
In 2011, Michael and Michelle felt the Lord asking them to start a boys’ home in Gulbarga. Many girls were looked after in Bangalore but few Christian children’s homes would accept boys so the Karuna boys’ home was established in Gulbarga. This was in keeping with the vision of changing the mindset of the leprosy community through education and Christian upbringing, through the children of the community.
In Harvi, at the Karuna Mission Station, Span Trust intends to build a 50 bed boys’ home for the children of the leprosy affected. The Mission Station will also be the recruiting centre for other children of the leprosy affected who stay in the 12 colonies mentioned above. These children will be placed in other Christian residential schools that sympathise with our concern for the leprosy affected.
All leprosy colonies have elderly persons whose condition is often pitiable. These people have now become old and invalid due to deformities caused by leprosy and old age. Most have no one to look after them and are at the mercy of some of the younger folks who take these elderly persons on trolleys into the surrounding villages and use them as an excuse for begging. They collect the money they receive but the elderly person is just given a little food that is collected during the course of the day so that he or she can survive. No thought is given to their medical problems, as the sicker they look the more sympathy they will gain. Some of these have relatives who also use them for the same purposes.
In Harvi, at the Karuna Mission Station, Span Trust intends to build a 20 bedded home (10 men & 10 women) for these elderly leprosy affected persons, where all their medical, physical and spiritual needs will be taken care of, so that they can live the rest of their lives in dignity.
All the people we serve are affected by leprosy; 30% of them are badly scarred and deformed. Others are less deformed, and some others are completely healthy but are ostracized because they are related to leprosy infected people. Most of these people have no alternative but to resort to begging for a livelihood.
With the recent changes they have seen in the lives of the children, many who are not maimed or deformed have started working as unskilled labourers and watchmen, while some of the youth have taken up driving autorickshaws