Archie visits the Schieffelin Institute South India 1964

About 20 kilometres from the Christian Medical College, in Vellore South India, is the Schieffellin Institute of Health Research & Leprosy Centre (SIH-RL) at Karigiri. It was founded by the cooperation of The Leprosy Mission, the American Leprosy Missions and The Christian Medical College.

Doctor Ida Scudder (from the Christian Medical College) turned the first sod of soil in 1952 and the centre was completed in1955.

Archie wanted to see it too, impressed by the new research undertaken there. People with leprosy travelled great distances for treatment and transforming operations.

Thirteen years after Archie’s visit, the centre became independent from the three founding organisations. It has seven objectives but the first is:

To serve in the spirit of Christ as an instrument of God in the healing of persons suffering from Leprosy.

While he was there, Archie thought back to when he and Grace had first been missionaries in Gopiganj in 1909. There wasn’t much they could do to help people with leprosy then. It was heartbreaking to see them.

Now there was encouraging news from the hospitals he’d seen in Nepal, Almora, Allahabad, and Karigiri and he believed there would be great breakthroughs in the near future for a cure that would lead to eradicating leprosy altogether.

(Page 317-318)

The price for the book is $26.95 including postage in NZ. For each copy sold, $15 will be donated to the Leprosy Mission NZ.

Please contact Shirley at shirley.jamieson.nz@gmail.com if you are interested in purchasing this book.