November 19, 2025
TOKYO – Fukuoka-based NGO Peshawar-kai announced that it has restarted leprosy treatment in Afghanistan at a briefing session in the city on Saturday.
It is the first time in about 15 years that leprosy treatment is being offered in the country at a clinic associated with the NGO, following a suspension that started around 2010 due to the country’s deteriorating security situation and staff shortages.
The resumption fulfills a long-held goal of Dr. Tetsu Nakamura, a former local representative of the NGO who was shot dead in 2019 at the age of 73 by an armed group in the country.
Leprosy treatment was the field in which Nakamura started his work as the former head of Peace Japan Medical Services (PMS), the nongovernmental organization carrying out the treatment with the financial support of Peshawar-kai.
Dr. Tetsu Nakamura. PHOTO: THE YOMIURI SHIMBUN
Last year, Peshawar-kai received a request from such authorities as the Nangarhar provincial government in eastern Afghanistan, where the group operates, for its cooperation in providing medical care to leprosy patients. By that time, the country’s security situation had improved with the Islamist Taliban’s return to power in 2021.
Following the request, Peshawar-kai and PMS rented a private house in Jalalabad, the provincial capital, to serve as a clinic and prepared for the treatment to restart. By Oct. 27 this year, all the necessary staff had been recruited.
On Nov. 1, the clinic opened.
The personnel travel to areas with large numbers of patients to offer treatment.
Peshawar-kai had initially aimed to resume the treatment in October, but the schedule was pushed back to respond to an earthquake that struck eastern Afghanistan in late August.
“We have finally been able to open a clinic for leprosy treatment,” PMS support office director Chiyoko Fujita, 66, who oversaw preparations on the ground, said at the briefing. “I want to pass these clinical skills on to the next generation.”
The meeting also included an announcement that Peshawar-kai Chair Masaru Murakami, 76, will step down from his post, which he has served in since 2015.
Murakami will remain the head of PMS, a position he holds concurrently.
Murakami, a psychiatrist, is one of the founding members of Peshawar-kai. Nakamura led irrigation canal construction and medical projects in the region with Murakami.
After Nakamura’s death, Murakami assumed the additional role of PMS representative.
“It’s deeply moving to see leprosy treatment return to the starting line again,” Murakami said. “The projects we have carried forward since Nakamura’s death have finally begun to find their footing. For the organization to continue, it needs to become younger, so I will resign as chair, but I hope to go on providing support.”
AloJapan.com