Conquering Baldwin Street to help eliminate leprosy

I have applied for a Youth Advocate Scholarship through the Leprosy Mission New Zealand. They send 10-20 young adults to Nepal each year to work alongside people afflicted with leprosy. There are 208,000 people around the globe still living with leprosy.

Leprosy untreated causes nerve damage that can result in the crippling of hands & feet, paralysis, blindness and more. In countries where leprosy exists infected people are often forced to stay home from school or jobs. Leprosy is curable but in poorer countries, access to treatment is very hard to come by. Maya is a 7-year-old girl living with leprosy in Nepal. Her leprosy started as wounds on her skin that festered and oozed on her hands, feet and face but then her hands seized and bent like claws. She lost all her friends and had to stop going to school and going out in public.

Hearing Maya's story motivated me to apply for this scholarship so that I can do my part in helping to eliminate leprosy. The last part of my application process is to raise at least $500, going directly towards helping to eliminate leprosy by 2035. I am in Dunedin for 30 days between 9/6/23 & 31/7/23 and so to raise this money I will be walking a 6km round trip up Baldwin Street - the steepest street in the world, every day that I am here and I will regularly post a photo from the top. I want to be part of changing lives for the better and I hope that you can support me in this with either with a few dollars or words of encouragement. Thank you!