Dipnarayan has achieved financial security withTLMTI’s Community Based Rehabilitation Project. Working as a labourer for the Food Corporation of India in Assam, Dipnarayan had started to notice the tell-tale signs of Leprosy on his foot. He became weak, lost sensation in his foot and began dragging it along the ground. “The disease made me weak and I couldn’t carry the boxes on my head”, he says. A traditional healer’s medicine further escalated his problems, burning the skin on his foot. Eventually, he made the decision to return to his hometown of Muzaffarpur and visit TLMTI’s Muzaffarpur Hospital for treatment. “Some village people told me about the hospital. I got shoes and medicine; my wound healed,”he explains. Having lost his earlier job, he took to pulling a rickshaw, but he had to pay money to the rickshaw owners so at the end of the day he wouldn’t have much left to buy food for his family. TLMTI’s Community-Based Rehabilitation Project offered Dipnarayan a loan to buy his own rickshaw. TLMTI’s Community-Based Rehabilitation Projects help people improve their economic status through initiatives like savings groups, vocational training, or by providing small loans. Today, Dipnarayan has more independence. “Now, I don’t need to pay out because it’s my own rickshaw. It feels nice having my own rickshaw,” he says happily.