how can you help: church & sunday school projects
You can make a difference for a child who suffers from leprosy
You can stop this frightening disease from disfiguring a child, destroying eyesight, or crippling small legs forever.
You can support ALM through your Sunday school classes! Throughout its history, American Leprosy Missions has worked closely with churches to help spread the word about leprosy patients and their needs. For more information about any of these projects, contact amlep@leprosy.org or call 1-800-543-3135.
Sunday School Challenges
Here's how it works: Review items and services from the list below, taken directly from the ALM budget. Your Sunday school decides which challenge to accept. Let us know of your challenge, you will be sent a personalized one-page proposal describing this need in more detail. Once you review and accept the proposal, we'll cross the item(s) off our budget. Click here to see a sample proposal (PDF) .
Review the following list of possible SUNDAY SCHOOL CHALLENGES then click the challenge you'd like to accept. In your email be sure to include your name, proper contact information, the name of your church and sunday school group, and the challenge you are interested in accepting. If you have any questions call us at 1-800-543-3135.
- Cure Plus – Leprosy destroys nerves that help you feel pain. For $300 your Sunday school can cure one person and provide any necessary follow-up assistance.
- Protective Shoes – Leprosy-damaged feet need special protective shoes. For $338 your Sunday school can provide 25 patients with these life-enhancing shoes. $1350 = 100 pair, $675 = 50 pair.
- Hand Pedal Tricycles – Damaged feet and limbs can not provide the transportation they used to. These tricycles provide independence to a community that relies heavily on walking. $720 will provide 2.
- Buruli Surgeons – Buruli ulcer destroys flesh and attacks mostly children. It is endemic in Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire. Training for these surgeons is vital. $1,100 is a bargain for this life-changing training.
- Motorcycle – Maneuvering over severe terrain and dense jungle to reach leprosy-affected and Buruli ulcer affected people is a necessity. $4,256 will enable health workers to deliver MDT, bandages, and other materials. They also provide the pastors who oversee the projects to provide discipleship to the people affected by leprosy and Buruli ulcer.
- Bicycles for health workers – Health workers need bicycles so they can travel to remote villages to do early case detection, education, wound care, and hospital referrals. $270 will provide 2 bicycles to enable health workers to rescue kids from permanent crippling and even amputations.
- Scholarships – Children in the countries where we work must pay for their text books, school supplies, and mandatory uniforms. People affected by leprosy are not able to send their children to school because they can not afford to. They must have an education to overcome the barriers placed upon them by the stigmas of leprosy. $100 will provide one year of education for one child affected by leprosy at the primary and secondary level.
- Micro credit/small business development – People affected by leprosy often must find a new means of financial support. To encourage independence and restore confidence small business loans are made available to people affected by leprosy. For a small loan of $100 tea stalls, shoe repair counters, snack booths, and sewing shops can be started giving hope and dignity to a person affected by leprosy.
- Animal Husbandry – Another means of financial support comes in the way of raising animals to sell or use as food. Goats, chickens, cows, water buffalo, or ducks are given to a person affected by leprosy. They breed these animals and give back the same number they received. $150 or less (depending on the animals) will purchase the animals needed to help feed and provide income for a family affected by leprosy.
- Community Pharmacy – Analgesics, antibiotics, skin creams, gauze, peroxide, and eye wash are essential medications needed by leprosy affected people but are not readily available. $100 will set up a small pharmacy with these medications. These pharmacies are managed by trained health workers.
Pete the Pig projects
In 1913, a little boy named Wilbur Chapman wanted to help children with leprosy. He took three silver dollars that his friend Mr. Danner gave him and bought a little piglet he named Pete. Every day Wilbur fed Pete and took good care of him.
Finally, when Pete was big and fat, Wilbur took him to the market and sold him for $25. Wilbur sent the $25 to Mr. Danner, who worked at American Leprosy Missions. He told Mr. Danner: "Please use this money to help cure people with leprosy."
Many children today also want to help people with leprosy. But they can't raise a pig like Wilbur did. They collect their coins in pig coin savers instead. ALM uses this money for doctors and hospitals and many other things people need. Download your Pete the Pig lesson packet! (PDF)
Sunday school handouts
Use our colorful handouts as part of your Sunday school lessons! Download your Sunday school packet! (PDF)
Missions Projects
Incorporate ALM and its ministry into your missions projects. Consider adding one or more of the following items to your missions fundraising. Contact amlep@leprosy.org.
- Protective shoes: $13/pair
- Artifical leg (below knee) and foot: $90
- Locally constructed wheelchair: $200
- One month hospital care for wounds,
ulcers, and leprosy reaction: $150 - Farmer training, supplies, equipment: $500
- Teach a patient deformity prevention: $25
- Surgery to restory eyelid blinking: $55
- Clawed fingers/toes surgery: $40
- Below knee amputation: $55
- "Foot drop" correction: $85
- Patient/ex-patient housing: $100
- Cure one person of leprosy: $300
To Download:
Sunday school materials, click here.
Pete the Pig materials, click here.
To obtain an eight-minute ALM video, please fill out the following form:
