A scholarship project for the children of leprosy patients in Turkey

Most of the leprosy patients in Turkey live in the rural areas of Eastern a nd South-Eastern Anatolia. Those living in the suburbs of the big cities of the Western parts of the country have come there by immigration. Nearly al l patients are very poor; they have no land, or only a small amount of soil for cultivation. The incidence of deformities in our patients is high, exc luding them from regular employment and a source of income. In Turkey, it i s obligatory to attend primary school, but after that education has to be p aid for, and the poor families of leprosy patients find it difficult to con tinue the education of their children. As the 'Society for the Struggle Aga inst Leprosy', based in the Istanbul Leprosy Hospital at Bakirkoy, we have developed a project to enable patients to continue sending their children t o school, whilst at the same time asking the mothers to seek advice and gui dance on family planning. The outset objective of this project was to enabl e children and young people, who otherwise have almost no chance of continu ing education, to pursue education at secondary, high school and university levels. It was envisaged that in the long term educated children would be able to find a job and provide effective care and support for parents and o ther members of the family. This paper describes the administrative and oth er measures adopted and the results of the project from 1995 to 1998, durin g which a total of 545 children have been supported at an overall cost of U S$107,378. The scholarship project has so far been remarkably successful in Turkey and it is hoped that it may provide a model for similar approaches in other countries. An unexpected and extremely encouraging finding has bee n that females now exceed males in this project and are increasing at all l evels, including university entrance.