Leah Pattison grew up in Weardale, County Durham and after graduating with a Fine Arts degree she undertook some voluntary work in India in 1995. This involved working at a Leprosy colony in Dattapur, Wardha, where her task was to teach English to young girls at the hostel there. This experience totally altered her life plan to become an artist. Leah was so moved by the particular plight of the women and children she encountered suffering from leprosy that she found herself returning to India and to Dattapur to continue working there. In 1997 Leah was to experience first hand the ordeal of her new friends when she herself contracted leprosy. It required a year of treatment before leah was pronounced clear of the disease. At Dattapur she had met and become close friends with a young Indian woman called Usha Patil, who had suffered severely from leprosy from the age of ten and who had undergone nine years of treatment and reconstructive surgery before being freed from the disease. Their friendship became a special bond formed through the sharing of adversity. Usha was the first person to notice the symptoms of Leah’s leprosy and so, as Leah had supported Usha through her illness, Usha now sustained Leah through her own crisis. The outcome was that they both decided to devote their future to the care of leprosy sufferers and, towards this end, they both qualified as leprosy paramedical workers at the Gandhi Memorial Leprosy Foundation in Wardha in 1999.

The Grand Commandery of the Castello has actively supported this project for the past year. We are driven by two facts. First, we talk direct to Leah’s mother, Sandra, who lives in Bishop Aukland, Co Durham and works as Leah’s administrative support. From Sandra we can get minute by minute updates on the project progress and it is direct to Sandra that our donations go. Second, we highly applaud the fact that this young woman Leah not only treats the discarded women of India for leprosy and AIDS, but also strives to rehabilitate them back with their husbands, children and families and into productive work after successful treatment. This often means weeks of painstaking and frustrating argument and persuasive discussion with family and employers alike to take the patient back into society to live a normal and useful life once more.

Our aim is to help Leah set up a custom built clinic in her district of Dattapur and in this respect, the Grand Commandery has so far donated £12,000. You can read and see more about this project at http://www.youtube.com/user/markashleyfilms. Mark who is Leah’s brother, has produced these film clips.

In March 2010, the Grand Commandery agreed at its Annual General Meeting to donate €12,000 to the ‘Women in Need’ project to buy an ambulance for use at Leah Pattison’s Dattapur Leprosy centre.

Jing Yang Leprosy Village Project

A project for and by People Affected by Leprosy (PAL)

The Grand Commandery of the Castello has actively been involved in a really exciting project brought to our attention by the Priory in Hong Kong. It concerned a Leper colony in the Sichaun Province of China named the Jing Yang Village. Work consisted of building a health clinic and providing water to all the dwellings in the village. The agreement was ‘that should we be in a position to raise all the required sum of £25,000 Sterling within a certain period of time, we would be allowed to fly the flag of St Lazarus on top of the clinic’.

So enthused by the project were we that the Council of the Grand Commandery immediately authorised a sum of £3,250 Sterling and then shortly afterwards £2,750 Sterling, making a total contribution of £6,000 Sterling. In addition, we endeavoured to raise the remaining balance from other Jurisdictions throughout the world. A limited amount of success was achieved with support from the USA, Holland and the UK, but unfortunately it was insufficient.

The Council then agreed to pay a further £2,333 Sterling to the project and there was also an anonymous donation of £805. Throughout 2007, further donations were made by the Grand Commandery of the Castello and, in 2008, we were proud to be able to hand over the balance of money required to bring the total up to the target amount of £25,000.  This amount, achieved in just over 12 months and raised from a membership averaging around only 60 members we feel was a significant and praiseworthy achievement.

 

For a more detailed explanation of Leprosy (Hansen’s Disease) and its effects click here

Other Worldwide Donations

Within the Grand Commandery’s concept that ‘every charitable penny raised gets to the hands of those that need it’ the Grand Commandery has supported many more worthwhile causes worldwide. The more recent include:

To the 2006 Asian Tsunami Appeal - €6,990 

To a hospital on the Ivory Coast to treat children suffering from a water ulcerous infection called ‘Ulera De Buruli’ - €2.330  

To the charity ‘Independent Living’ a donation of €1,400 to purchase a hydraulic hoist and wheelchair.

For the bush fire disaster in the Victoria region of Australia, €1,000 donated to the ‘Victoria Bush Fire Appeal’


Closer to Home

As well as supporting those in need in far flung places, it would not be charitable to ignore our own doorstep in Malta. In this respect, the Council always has its eyes open for local deserving causes and, in recent years, the Grand Commandery has made the following donations:

In 2005, €11,650 was given to ‘Dar Tal-Providenza’, a residential care home for the disabled in Malta.

Support to the ‘Inspire, the Foundation for Inclusion, (formerly known as Razzett Tal Hbiberija’), a centre for the disabled in Marsascala, Malta, by purchasing various pieces of equipment to help ease the pain of the disabled. The latest donation was €816 for a ‘Bubble Tube’ for the centre’s Multi Sensory Unit.

A donation of €1,496 to purchase a hospital bed to enable patients to receive treatment at the Adult Training Centre in Gozo.
 

We purchased various pieces of equipment for the ‘Richmond Foundation’ in Malta costing €815.

A donation of €1,400 was given to the ‘Little Sisters of the Poor’  in Malta.

Two light weight wheelchairs were purchased for the ‘Malta Hospice Society’ at a cost of €1,165

A donation of €350 was made to ‘St Paul’s Anglican Pro Cathedral’, Malta towards the repair required to the Cathedral  roof.

In June 2009 The Grand Commandery gave €700 to the Missionary Movement ‘Jesus In Thy Neighbour’ which is headed by Master Fr Gorg Grima. This money allowed Fr Gorg, 30 minutes 'air time' for an appeal on Malta National TV. The appeal raised an amazing €80,012 - enough to build 114 homes for leprocy sufferers in Ethiopia.

At our St Lazarus ‘Night at the Opera’ event held on the 14th May 2010 at St James Cavalier, Valletta, the Grand Commandery donated €700 to Fr Gorg Grima for the build of an additional house at his leprosy centre in Ethiopia.