An independent Australian charity, it is an active member of Leprosy Mission International (LMI) a global federation working in 28 countries.

[1] With a history dating back to 1913, TLMA focuses on providing medical treatment, rehabilitation, education, and advocacy for people affected by leprosy, especially those in marginalised communities.

It has also been a fellowship who recruits, supports and sends the leprosy specialists, including the surgeon Grace Warren, Professor Warrick Britton, and the microbiologist Jenny Davis.

[9] While the disease has been feared throughout history, and it sufferers frequently experience social rejection, Gospel accounts—such as Jesus cleansing a person affected by leprosy—have compelled many Australian Christians to serve those who live with the condition.

[11][12] The group funds research programs based in the Stanley Browne Laboratory in India, which has emerged as authority on the transmission of the bacteria in the environment, within households and via the nose.

[19] As of 2023, according to Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission records, the mission funded ten projects in India, Indonesia, Nepal, Nigeria and Timor-Leste drawing on a budget of $7.866 million.

[58] Funding these international programs has always been a priority, so these projects "have the best Australia can give", to use the phrase of its early advocate, Bishop George Chambers.

[16] TLMA's educational efforts aim to empower individuals and communities with knowledge about leprosy, facilitating early diagnosis and treatment.

[3] Advocacy plays a crucial role in raising the profile of leprosy on national and international agendas, ensuring adequate funding and resources for its eradication.

[8] Through its history, the mission has encouraged a great variety of fundraising activities, including regular giving, cycling sponsorships, street appeals, events, and extreme-distance walking.

[11] In 1918, J Noble Mackenzie asked the Australian auxiliary if they would raise funds for a Leprosy Mission in Korea, led by Dr. C. H. Erwin; which would require 500 pounds.

[2] In 1922, the committees raised sufficient money to provide buildings for leprosy patients in Melut, in partnership with Sudan United Mission.

[84] Grace Warren began her first stint with the group at this time, and would go on to lead surgical teams, train many other specialists and pioneered the technique of tendon transfer in reconstructive surgery for leprosy patients with Paul Brand.

[85][86] With new techniques and systems, they arranged a fresh medical team to serve in New Guinea of Dr Ken Clezy, Julie Christie a physiotherapist from NZ, theatre sister Val Taylor.

By 2003, TLMA was responsible for several groups of not just medical, but allied health students, who began visiting projects in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Papua New Guinea, Nigeria, Nepal and India.