“I was inspired by the Bible to come and work with leprosy,” says Shondha Mondon, a project manager who has been working with TLM Bangladesh since 2015. “I wanted to help those who are neglected. No one was talking for them, so I wanted to help them raise their voice.”
Inspired by the example of Jesus, Shonda felt called to use her skills to bring hope and healing to people affected by leprosy. She was even happy to accept a drop in salary in order to work as project manager for the Advocacy for Empowerment Programme, a project funded by TLM.
Thanks to Shonda’s hard work, more and more people in hard-to-reach areas of Bangladesh are accessing the cure for leprosy and receiving the treatment and care they need.
Shonda Mondon and her team travel from town to town seeking those who have been neglected and forgotten. In spite of her many responsibilities, she still takes time to care for individual patients, examining them and dressing their wounds.
Shonda is on the frontline of leprosy care; detecting hidden cases of the disease and helping to prevent people from developing leprosy-related disabilities by teaching them to clean wounds on their hands and feet.
We think Shonda Mondon is a truly inspirational Hospital Hero. She is one of many TLM staff who work so tirelessly on the frontline, caring for leprosy patients and showing Jesus’ love to people who have been rejected by their families and shunned by their communities. Shonda and others like her give a voice to the voiceless and empower people affected by leprosy to regain dignity, identity and hope for the future.
Many of our Hospital Heroes face challenges as they pursue a career caring for people who are, in some countries, considered unclean and cursed.
Like Shonda Mondon, many of them could get a better paid job with more status and more perks. Yet they feel called to be Jesus’ hands and feet, to follow his example, and to bring healing to the poor, marginalised and outcast.
Specialist leprosy treatment is becoming increasingly hard to find in some of the countries where TLM works. So it is vital that we continue to fund, train and develop new staff and equip them with essential knowledge and skills so that we can continue to diagnose, treat and restore people affected by leprosy.
