MORHAN

This organization was initially created to ensure the rights of patients from leper colonies due to their isolation, and today it is one of the most successful Brazilian social movements, with representation in the National Health Council.

[1] The group has used several methods to disseminate information about leprosy including, but not limited to, handing out pamphlets, hosting seminars, and organizing puppet shows for children.

[4] Morhan's work has been exemplary in creating partnerships between social groups and the government and received an award from the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals.

[1] Morhan first emerged as an organization for the physically handicapped in general, although a specific group for those disabled by Hansen’s disease or leprosy was set up soon afterwards.

[7] Morhan’s participation in Hansen’s disease control policymaking was made official nationwide in 1986, influencing the make-up of state technical commissions and municipal health councils.

[1] Thomas Frist, a North American social scientist who, at the end of the 1970s and the start of the 1980s, set up a project involving patients from the communities surrounding the old leper colony hospitals was also one of the founders of Morhan.

Matogrosso’s support was not only to strengthen Morhan's brand, but also to step up political pressure to prioritize public campaigns on the disease in Brazil.

Morhan's national entity has an agreement with the state government of Rio de Janeiro, the Novartis Foundation and is negotiating with the Ministry of Health to ensure funding.

[9] The national headquarters are located at Rua do Matoso Nº 6, sala 204 - Praça da Bandeira - Rio de Janeiro, RJ 20270-130, Brasil.