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Story Publication logo March 23, 2016

Sri Lanka's Forgotten Leprosy Generation

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Gunathilike was sent to the Hendala Leprosy Hospital in 1946. He plays the mouth organ in the hospital band. Image by Ross Velton. Sri Lanka, 2015.
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As plans are being made to turn Sri Lanka’s oldest leprosy hospital into a museum or a geriatric...

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Despite the strides in eradicating leprosy, there are still those who contracted the disease before the cure became widely available. Locked away in leprosy asylums, they were left to fend for themselves—pushed away from their families, excluded from society.

Pulitzer Center grantee Ross Velton visits one of Sri Lanka's last remaining leprosy hospitals.

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