Priest awarded for service to people with leprosy in Bangalore

March 18, 2013 - A Catholic priest, managing a rehabilitation center for people afflicted with leprosy or Hansen’s disease, was among people awarded for outstanding service in southern India’s Bangalore city. Claretian priest, Father George Kannanthanam, who has spent the last decade living and working with society’s outcasts – leprosy patients - at his organization Sumanahalli was declared ‘Citizen of the Year." "I am glad that the general public is taking notice of the work done by the Church,” Fr. Kannanthanam told UCANEWS. He said that many Church institutions in the city have been working for the poor. The Namma Bengaluru (our Bangalore) Foundation instituted awards to honor the people who work behind the scenes, doing their best to make the world a better place. This year’s awards were given at a function Saturday in Bangalore. The awards were divided into nine categories and had 61,000 nominees for these categories. The Claretian priest said he always wanted to work for the poor and the marginalized, especially the Hansenites. "People with leprosy are the most neglected group of the society. They are the poorer of the poor. Their socio-economic condition is also not very good,” he said. He said that he wanted to focus his attention on these peoples as “this is what Jesus did.”
The archdiocese of Bangalore started the institution for lepers in 1978 and Claretians began to manage it some two decades ago. It is engaged in all aspects of leprosy work including diagnosis, public awareness building and treatment. Its programmes include assistance for leprosy patients with housing, marriage, self-employment and finding employment with government and private agencies. It also helps in the education of their children. The priest said that in the last five years, they have provided 800 houses to Hansenites and this year 28 houses for Hansenites have been sanctioned by the Karantaka government.