About 35 cured lepers currently housed at the Weija Leprosarium are in dire need of affection and financial aid from families and the government. They lack food and water supply, sanitation fa­cilities, medicine and other life sustaining necessi­ties. In addition to that the government has since 2006 failed to increase the subsidy for the leprosa­rium to assist in their upkeep thus placing a huge responsibility on the shoulders of benevolent organisations as well as the mother institution, the Lepers Aid Committee, to provide them with their basic needs. These issues came to light last weekend when the Papal Nuncio to Ghana, Archbishop Leon Kalenga, and the Ambassador of the Knights of Malta, a social organisation, Grand-Cross Lorenzo Dore, paid a visit to the Leprosarium at Weija, near Accra. The visit afforded the visitors the opportunity to have a first hand information about the plight of the inmates. The Reverend Father Andrew Campbell, Chair­man of the Lepers Aid Committee, who took the delegation round, urged the government to ur­gently address the issue of subsidy to help im­prove the living conditions of the cured-lepers. "The government should, please, come to the assistance of the lepers to facilitate their upkeep", he pleaded. Rev. Fr Campbell bemoaned the extent of stigma against lepers in the country and said they de­served to be treated with respect. He said some cured lepers had been abandoned by families who had neglected them over the years, but would rush to spend lavishly on their funerals when they die. "Some have been here for the past four decades," he lamented and appealed to the government to assist in finding a lasting solution to the problem of integration to enable the cured lepers to return home. He expressed concern about two other leprosa­riums in Ho and Nkanchina that have never ben­efited from any government subsidy and urged the government and family relations to go to their aid. Earlier, Archbishop Kalenga presented a cheque for GH¢ 13,900 to the inmates. Presenting the amount, he said the church and government must collaborate to address the needs of the lepers as well as other underprivileged per­sons in the society. The Papal Nuncio said that the church, in par­ticular, must not shy away from the primary respon­sibility of lending a helping hand to the vulnerable in the society. He pledged to provide each of the four blocks of the leprosarium with a television set as a means of entertainment for the lepers. The lepers received donations of assorted food items and toiletries from the Grand-­Cross Dore. Madam Gladys Adobea, a cured leper, on behalf of her colleagues expressed profound appreciation for the gesture. Source: