Leprosy continues to be a public health problem in many countries with 61% of the world's leprosy cases being diagnosed in India. The Sangam's Health Team and Village Health and Social Workers have been trained to recognise the disease in the rural villages and refer upwards to doctors for diagnosis and treatment. In the slums it is a different problem with Leprosy being feared and a lack of knowledge about the disease leading to the exclusion of sufferers from the community. This prevents sufferers from obtaining the services of a doctor. What they do not realize is that the disease is treatable through chemotherapy and multi-drug therapy.

Although the rate of detection has decreased, the number of cases detected every year remains high. In order to fight against the stigma associated with leprosy, and prevent the isolation of the patients the Ecumenical Sangam has co-ordinated information sessions. Mr Dilip Sathe, the former village co-ordinator has acted as the facilitator, utilising the knowledge gained in his previous work experience with Leprosy prior to joining the Sangam.

The Ecumenical Sangam in collaboration with ALERT INDIA (Mumbai) under Leprosy Elimination Action Programme (LEAP) started a series of seminars for the young and budding doctors of Nagpur district. These seminars which are part of the Sangam's Continuing Health Education aim at promoting awareness among the young/budding doctors about leprosy treatment and thus influence the national health policy.

The Sangam has networked with renowned skin and treatment specialists together with other resource persons of the region to guide the students in the social and clinical treatment and rehabilitation aspects of Leprosy patients.

Students from nursing as well as other courses have also been included in the seminars. We have already conducted two seminars in which fifty budding nurses participated and gained scientific knowledge and understanding about the problems associated with Leprosy in detail from the experts and knowledgeable doctors.

Sessions have been recently organised for Laboratory Technicians working in some of the hospitals, clinics and in private practice in Nagpur and the surrounding districts of Vidharbha region including Chandrapur, Gadchiroli and Yawatmal. The 60 Laboratory Technicians were given practical demonstrations on skin smear tests and slides of the Leprosy bacteria were shown to them under a microscope.

On the 20th August 2010 the 50th Leprosy Awareness Seminar was organised at the Rainbow Conference Centre for the students of Lata Mangeshkar Medical College studying in the final year of their M.B.B.S course. 45 students participated in this programme along with a number of their teaching staff. More than more 2339 students and their teaching staff have benefited from the 50 Leprosy Awareness Seminars that have been organised by the Ecumenical Sangam's Leap team.

During the year 2008-09 the Ecumenical Sangam was given the additional responsibility to function as the lead Non Government Organisation partner for LEAP in Nagpur to plan, monitor and execute a selective special drive to create awareness about Leprosy in the slums of Nagpur city. In addition to looking after the Nagpur district, from October 2009 the Sangam has started to function as the LEAD NGO to induct and monitor the activities of other service partners in the nearby Wardha and Bhandara districts.

Leprosy activities are covered through three different fields of action: the Continuing Medical Education (CME), the Selective Special Drive (SSD) and the Leprosy Referral Centre. Mr Dilip Sathe is organizing the Continuing Medical Education programme, the Sangam's Leap Team are training volunteer Project Health Assistants to inform the slum dwellers in the Special Selective Drive and the Leprosy Referral Centre ministers to the patients referred for treatment.

To date more than 175,000 of the urban slum population of Nagpur city have been given the basic information about Leprosy through 'House to House' visits under the Selective Special Drive programme.