About foundation

About Us

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The Damien Foundation is a Belgian, national, pluralist and apolitical NGO. Established in 1964, on the heels of the "World Leprosy Days" started by Raoul Follereau ("the lepers' lawyer"), the Damien Foundation draws daily inspiration from the work of two other key figures: Dr. Frans Hemerijckx ("the lepers' doctor" to whom we owe "clinics under the trees", which means the hospital goes to the patient and not the other way around) and, of course, Father Damien ("the lepers' apostle"), who modelled values to apply every day, both in Belgium and abroad.

The vision of Damien Foundation

A future free of leprosy and tuberculosis

The mission of Damien Foundation

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Damien Foundation makes a difference in the worldwide fight against leprosy, tuberculosis and other neglected poverty-related diseases.
Damien Foundation is achieving this by:

• Providing quality health care through training, research and targeted medical actions;
• Facilitating the reintegration of persons affected by leprosy or tuberculosis;
• Raising awareness on the medical and social aspects of leprosy and tuberculosis;
• Securing the needed means to realise its objectives.

The core values of Damien Foundation are pluralism, independence, integrity and accountability.

Three Diseases

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TOriginally, the Damien Foundation was established to fight leprosy. However, with dwindling needs in this field and increasing financial support, the Foundation soon extended its scope of action to include the fight against tuberculosis, the disease it fights the most today (it fights tuberculosis, on its own or combined with another disease, in each of its projects). However, the Damien Foundation will never stop its fight against leprosy and is focusing more on this disease again. The Damien Foundation also fights a third disease, Leishmaniasis, in Nicaragua and in Guatemala.

Local Personnel

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There are four key elements to the Damien Foundation's current work in 13 countries in Africa, Asia and Central America : it only works at the request of local governments, on long-term projects, in cooperation with partners like the WHO, ILEP (International Federation of Anti-Leprosy Associations) and the UIATLD (International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease) and almost exclusively with local personnel (over 1,200 people).

Basic Projects too

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The Damien Foundation works mainly through national leprosy, tuberculosis and Leishmaniasis programmes, some of which it has helped to establish. These programmes are the best way to give a maximum number of people access to health care and they are the Damien Foundation's priority. But they obviously cannot meet the needs of all patients or former patients.
This is why, since 2007, the Damien Foundation has been running "basic projects".
These small-scale projects target limited populations in a set period of time. These projects are mainly socio-economic by nature, but they can be medical too.

A solid basis in Belgium

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To live up to its "non-governmental" status, the Damien Foundation relies on two solid bases in Belgium: enthusiastic contributors and faithful donors. Together, they cover over half of the Foundation's needs. And they allow the Foundation to remain independent, no matter what happens.