This 11” x 13”, 112-page book with 100 museum-quality black and white photographs, was published in association with the launch of the Quest for Dignity exhibit at the United Nations in 1997. Through quotations, short life stories and powerful images, Quest for Dignity illustrates how people affected by leprosy around the world are challenging the stigma and defying old stereotypes as they transform the traditionally negative image of leprosy into a positive message of hope and triumph. 

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Freeing Ourselves of Prejudice -- $6.00

This 32-page booklet contains empowering quotations and dignified images from IDEA members around the world, illustrating a strong determination to end prejudice and misunderstanding.
Sample quote:

"We will no longer bow our heads. We'll hold them high. By our strength of purpose we will no longer feel ashamed or guilty. We will no longer have the fear of rejection. Most important, we will not be denied our human rights. We will maintain our esteem and dignity.” -- Francisco A.V. Nunes, Brazil

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The Texture of Our Souls -- $8.00

This 48-page booklet contains inspiring quotations, poetry and powerful images, largely chronicling the challenges faced by the older generation of individuals who were diagnosed with leprosy prior to the advent of a cure. Sample quote:

"A man can survive a cataclysm, suffer the loss of his nearest and dearest; see the whole pattern of his life smashed to pieces, and yet remain basically unchanged; the inner texture of his soul untouched.” -- Peter Greave, England

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VIDEO: Olivia and Tim: Very Much Alive

NTSC format, 50 minutes, 1994 -- $25.00

Olivia Breitha is a 75-year-old woman who was diagnosed with leprosy in 1934 and isolated on the remote Kalaupapa Settlement in Hawaii. Cured since the early

1950’s, Olivia has remained at Kalaupapa, the place she regards as home. Tim Baker was diagnosed with AIDS in 1989 and died in 1992, shortly after the filming of this documentary. Olivia and Tim: Very Much Alive records their meetings as they share stories and make telling observations on the treatment society gives to people with disabling conditions. As Tim observes: “The disease is secondary. What Olivia and I have in common is: We both live life, and we tell it like it is.

In addition, IDEA also has copies of the following books available for purchase:

The Walls Crumble. The Emancipation of Persons Affected by Hansen's Disease in Japan

by Dr. Fujio Ohtani (hard cover, English) -- $25.00

“To deny the basic human rights of someone who is ill is totally unconscionable.

I believe that the fact that the Leprosy Prevention Law has, in the name of law,

in fact made de facto prisoners of those who suffer from this disease by forcing

their isolation in the name of ‘public welfare. In banishing a group of people

from the rest of society, the law has condoned the way that society has both

despised, ignored and discriminated against these people. This was not merely

wrong, this indicated a conscious intent to cause harm. From both the social

and ethical perspectives these are acts which cannot be permitted to continue

or be forgotten. This book is an attempt to analyze what effect the Leprosy

Prevention Law (through its several stages of amendments) has had on this

country and how it was terminated.”

-- From the Foreword, by Fujio Ohtani

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Alone No Longer

by Stanley Stein (paperback) -- $10.00

Originally published in 1963, this is the inspiring autobiography of

Sidney Levyson, who took the name Stanley Stein upon entering the

U.S. Public Health Service Hospital in Carville, Louisiana in 1931.

“I was case number 746. Henceforth I would always be No. 746,

a number identified not only with my case history but with

everything I would do at Carville for the next third of a century,

from seeking laxative tablets to making a laundry list . . . . We

were no more entitled to individuality than a convict in a

penitentiary . . . At ten o'clock that Sunday morning, March 1, 1931, I became

an exile in my own country.” -- Stanley Stein

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Olivia. My Life of Exile at Kalaupapa

by Olivia Robello Breitha (paperback), is also highly recommended and available from the Arizona Memorial Museum Association.

“In June of 1937, I received my bad news. I mean bad. I got a letter telling
me, ‘Treatment is no longer of any benefit to you. This is to notify you that on June 30, 1937, you are being sent to Kalaupapa . . .’

“It really was bad news. First the letter said that treatment would benefit me no longer. That killed any hope I had of ever getting well. Second, Kalaupapa seemed to me to be the end of the world, the very end. In public, I tried to be cheerful, mostly in front of my family. In the privacy of my room, my pillow was soaked with tears . . .” -- Olivia Breitha

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Free Pamphlets:

Replacing Old Images with Modern Day Realities

IDEA Scholarship Fund

Museum of Hansen's Disease