Heroes come and go in their own times. Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Theresa and a handful of other humanitarian heroes played their parts helping social outcasts, as well as those who were disowned or discriminated against, in some of the most difficult conditions the world has to offer.

In these modern times, a new hero has emerged named Yohei Sasakawa, following in the footsteps these former greats. Inspired by his father Ryoichi Sasakawa when he was 26, the young Sasakawa found a cause to fight for - the elimination of leprosy.

Sasakawa's father took him to South Korea where he built a leprosy hospital to cure his patients. Sasakawa, already a businessman at the time, was taken to meet leprosy patients too. "Then I realized this was the work I must do with my father," he says.

"I was terribly shocked to see them *leprosy patients*," adds Sasakawa, who is turning 70 this year. "They were in such bad conditions and many had deformities. They were also unable to live with other people because of the stigma and prejudice that came with the disease."

Sasakawa joined the Nippon Foundation as a trustee in 1981, and in 2005 was elected as its chairman. The Foundation works with the World Health Organization, governments, international organizations and non-government organizations in the global campaign to eliminate leprosy.

From 1995 to 1999, the Nippon Foundation channeled funding for free multi-drug therapy (MDT) for every leprosy-affected person in the world. Some 16 million people have been cured since MDT became available.

More than three decades later, not showing signs of slowing, Sasakawa continues his fight because the stigma and prejudice remain, despite the fact that leprosy, when detected early, can now be cured easily.

A father of four, Sasakawa, is like a modern-day Gandhi, who was also known for his profound concern for people living with leprosy in India. Sasakawa has been widely quoted for describing the elimination of leprosy - one of the oldest yet largely ignored scourges to afflict mankind - as his life's work.

"MDT is available for leprosy-affected people, free of charge, anywhere in the world, and yet we still see new cases of leprosy arising all over the world. The media is still not sensitive toward this issue and I feel there is a lack of efforts from governments to realize they must do more," Sasakawa says.

Sasakawa has chosen the unbeaten path of standing up for those whose illness has been widely neglected. Instead of making speeches at bona fide forums, he has chosen the arduous task of traveling around the globe to exhibit the abundance of treatments available for "brothers and sisters" in need of help.

Named the Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination in 2004 by the World Health Organization, Sasakawa has an extensive travel itinerary (perhaps more than any heads of state) to walk his talk in his appeal to disown the prejudice and stigmas associated with leprosy.

His recent two-day trip around East Java proved this. On Friday last week, Sasakawa arrived in Indonesia after a long series of flights - from Japan to China to Singapore and then to Surabaya (the capital of East Java) - and with not a minute's rest he was off to meet health officials to receive progress reports and to discuss challenges they faced in the fight to eliminate leprosy.

Surabaya was the right place for Sasakawa to visit, since 30 percent of Indonesia's leprosy-affected people live in East Java. After Brazil and India, Indonesia is home to around one-third of the world's leprosy cases. A total of 17,234 new cases were detected in 2008, 5,083 of which were in East Java's northern coastal areas and Madura Island.

On Friday, Sasakawa's schedule was hectic. Riding on a bus, Sasakawa stopped at an event involving former leprosy sufferers and children. He appeared on a stage to award trophies and congratulate winners of a children's drawing competition and to watch a brief play performed by leprosy-affected people.

He then had to run off because time was running short. The next stop was Lamongan, some two hours' drive east of Surabaya where Sasakawa was scheduled to meet a former leprosy sufferer, Ahmad Zainudin, a teacher at an elementary school in the town.

The following day Sasakawa traveled even further, to Mojokerto, four hours' drive away, to visit Sumber Glagah leprosy hospital. The hospital is situated in the hills and is surrounded by lush vegetation and tidy paddies.

Not far away is a colony of 184 leprosy-affected people, who live with their families.

At every point of his visit, Sasakawa not only shook the hands with people living with leprosy and leprosy-affected people, but also hugged them. And in a rare opportunity, Sasakawa even got down and washed the wounds of a leprosy patient at the hospital.

"Encouraging people who are working with leprosy and leprosy-affected people in the field is what I always do when I visit countries. I believe there is a solution to every problem, but problems cannot be solved if we just sit in air-conditioned rooms.

"You have to get out there and be there for people," Sasakawa says during an interview on his way from Mojokerto to Surabaya.

As well as being in the field in person, Sasakawa also believes meeting heads of state is also important in his fight, because "government agencies and officials will not listen to the voices of people at grassroots levels or their fellow officials.

"Wherever I go - although I haven't done it this time in Indonesia - I meet heads of state of the countries I visit. I always remind them that even if they have small numbers of people living with leprosy, they should make a leprosy policy high among their priorities.

"When government agencies hear it from *the head of state*, they will understand and take action.

"I travel to about 140 days a year, about one third of the year, mostly visiting third-world countries and especially to areas like these. In total I have visited 109 countries and the longest I've been in one place is four days.

"Of course, physically I can get tired. I am just human too, but I consider the world as my own home, so going to another country is like going to my neighbor's house. That way, I never feel tired because it's only visiting a neighbor.

"I will never show any fatigue in front of the people I meet. it's very important to be energetic, always smiling and gentle."

But the frequent travel is also a blessing for Sasakawa because the time he spends on planes is free time when he can enjoy doing what he loves: reading and drinking.

"I feel that on airplanes I have no one to bother me. I can do the reading that I love to do. And if I was at home and I asked my wife *Darling, bring me a glass of whiskey,' she'd get very angry and tell me to get it myself, but on the plane whenever I press the button they bring me anything I want. So, I just love being on the airplane: reading and drinking."

And after Sasakawa's travels to far-away places, his cleaning expenses soar beyond the money he spends on traditional costumes in the countries he visits. He has more than 10 of them.

"Wherever I go, because I cannot speak the language, I try to wear the costume of the country as a friendly gesture. Once I wore a 5-meter-high African turban and had to dance with the people there," he says.

Sasakawa says his wife was once questioned by the laundry. "They asked her if she had Indian or African guests staying with her."

The long and lone fight to stop discrimination against people with leprosy has been finally heard by the UN Human Rights Council.

"The people at the Council may be experts in human rights, but they told me they were unaware that more than 100 million people living with leprosy, and their families, were still discriminated against and stigmatized," Sasakawa says.

And he gladly admits that his fight has borne fruits since a resolution will soon be signed by UN member countries, opening the way for brothers and sisters living with leprosy, and helping them to move on.

Selected Honors and Awards

2008 Honorary Doctorate, University for Peace, Costa Rica

2007 Honorary Doctor of Humanity, University of Cambodia, Cambodia

2007 Goodwill Ambassador for the Human Rights of People Affected by Leprosy, Japan

2007 Honorary Professorship, Guizhou University, China

2007 Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, Rochester Institute of Technology, USA

2006 Commandeur de l'Ordre' National Du Mali a titre Etranger

2006 Honorary Professorship, Dalian Maritime University, China

2006 International Gandhi Award

2004 Honorary Professorship, Shanghai Maritime University

2004 Yomiuri International Cooperation Prize, Japan

2004 Honorary Professorship, Heilongjiang University

2004 Honorary Professorship, Harbin Medical University

2004 Appointed as WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination

2003 Honorary Professorship, China Medical University

2003 National Construction Medal, Cambodia

2003 Commandeur de L'ordre Royal du Monisaraphon, Cambodia

2001 Millenium Gandhi Award, International Leprosy Union

2001 Appointed by WHO as Special Ambassador for the Elimination of Leprosy of GAEL (Global Alliance for the Elimination of Leprosy)

2000 International Green Pen Awards honour Pacific Environmental Journalism, Fiji

2000 Decerne la Medaille d'Honneur de Menerbes, France

1998 Al Hussein Bin Ali Decoration for Accomplishment - First Degree, The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

1998 Health-for-All Gold Medal, World Health Organization

1997 China Health Medal, People's Republic of China

1996 Frantsiska Scarina Medal, Republic of Belarus

1996 Order of Friendship, Russian Federation

1996 Order of Merit for Distinguished Service - Third Grade, Republic of Peru

Popular

RI, Australia strengthen partnership on taxing crypto assets

Analysis: Indonesia denies normalization with Israel to enter OECD

Citroen to produce electric cars in Indonesia