A CHANCE TO GROW - RUNNER-UP
NEPAL

Shanti Sewa Griha is a self-sufficient society for leprosy victims and other social outcasts.

Nepal is one of the few countries in the world where people still get leprosy. Effective treatments exist. But fear of the disease runs so deep that victims are often shunned even after they've been cured. Most end up as beggars around the country's temples - though even here they are often ostracised by other beggars.

Shanti Sewa Griha - meaning "Peace, Help and Home" in Nepali - was set up to help the beggars around one of the biggest temples in the capital Kathmandu. "We started with 13 leprosy affected people back in 1992," remembers Krishna Gurung, one of Shanti's founders. "Now we have altogether over a thousand people."