Chief minister Arjun Munda flanked by chairman of Nippon Foundation Yohei Sasakawa (left) and member of Human right commission of United Nation Yozo Yokata release a souvenir at Media Partnership Workshop 2005-06. Picture by Ashok Karan

Ranchi, Feb. 1: The chairman of Nippon Foundation and WHO goodwill ambassador for leprosy eradication, Yohei Sasakawa, appealed to the people of India and Japan to take part in fund raising campaigns to fight the disease.

In the capital today to take part in a media workshop, he said the target funds are ?a massive Rs 100 crore?. The two-day event was organised by WHO, Nippon Foundation, ICONS Media, the state and the Union government.

The goodwill ambassador said he aims to ?create a society without leper colonies?. Sasakawa has been working with a single-minded devotion to bring dignity to the lepers for the last four decades.

The first time he came in contact with lepers was when he accompanied his father ? Ryoichi Sasakawa, Nippon Foundation?s founder, who was also involved in this cause ? on his overseas trips. The result was a lifetime devoted to battling the disease and also against the social injustice meted out to lepers.

Born in Tokyo in 1939, the third son of Ryoichi, graduated from Meiji University in 1960 with a degree in political science and economics and began a commercial career. Over the next two decades he looked after his father?s company and in 1979 opted out to pursue his ?larger mission in life to support the work of his father who had also worked for the cause of lepers?.

Talking to The Telegraph, the chairman said: ?This is my second visit to Jharkhand and I have noticed remarkable changes in the way the government machinery is working towards the elimination of leprosy in the state.

?The current prevalence rate in Jharkhand is 1.4 per cent and there has been tremendous progress in comparison to the last three years, when the prevalence rate was five per cent. Our goal is to achieve a prevalence rate of less than one per cent.?

The goodwill ambassador recalled how his father became involved in the fight against leprosy.

The father, when he was 22, fell in love with a girl. Later, the girl went missing and he was told that she had contracted leprosy and send to an isolated colony, as was the prevalent rule and custom in Japan.

?My father was devastated when he heard this,? he said and added that since then the senior Sasakawa was involved in the fight against leprosy.