From laughter to disaster (Programmes Workshop Day 4)

Some time off to go elephant riding

A long day, but starting with a lot of fun this morning.  Some rearranging was required due to our original booking having fallen down because the elephant park we were planning to visit double booked us, so we headed further out of town to another place, meaning that the trip took somewhat longer than planned and the afternoon was a bit pressed for time, and finished somewhat later than planned.  The elephants were wonderful, though most of us came back feeling ashamed that elephants can draw better than we can, but we all really enjoyed ourselves.

International Fellowship - Francois (DR Congo), Kay (Myanmar), Heidi (Netherlands), Wilson (South Sudan), Yohanna (Niger), Jiptha (Bangladesh), Jill (Scotland) and Mary (India).  Hiding in the background are staff from Australia, England and Wales, Nigeria and Angola

Heidi from TLM Netherlands outlining their innovative ideas

In the afternoon we started off looking at the innovative ideas being considered, or already being implemented in our various countries, which was fascinating.  I shared about the Bela children's book, TLMT India have been doing reconstructive surgery in government hospitals, TLM Bangladesh are working with other NGOs to increase access to leprosy care into areas their projects don't cover, TLM Myanmar are planning to use video and mobile internet to allow physios to consult with each other even when they are in different places, TLM Netherlands are working on a computer game to teach young people about leprosy, TLM Nigeria are looking at sport as a way into both integration and case detection, TLM Papua New Guinea are planning to reintroduce reconstructive surgery, TLM South Sudan are looking at closer cooperation with other NGOs, and they also want to open an elephant park as a fundraising tool (that last was a joke - their elephants are dangerous!), TLM DR Congo are keen to work closely with agencies working on other Neglected Tropical Diseases, TLM Australia are looking in to academic research into the financial burden of leprosy disability, TLM Mozambique want to source project funds from multinational companies...  And these are just a very few of the ideas being discussed.

TLM Mozambique (with translation support from Angola) share their particularly artistic innovations

We then moving on to look at research, partnerships and collaboration, child protection and climate change, which included a game, which showed the hard choices poor communities have to make on whether to use their already limited resources to plan for a disaster which may or may not come.

Yohanna from TLM Niger taking the climate change game very seriously