Bonds of friendship forged in a leprosy village

Ryotaro Harada, right, helps an elderly patient read a letter inviting him to display his paintings at a Japanese art exhibition, at a leprosy village in Foshan city, Guangdong province, July 27, 2013. Ryotaro Harada, a Japanese national who migrated to China, has been devoted to leprosy prevention and elimination in China since 2002. In 2003, he founded the non-governmental organization JIA, which shares its pronunciation with the Chinese word meaning "family", in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, an organization working to collect information, procure funds, and train facilitators for leprosy treatment. By 2012, some 11,400 volunteers were mobilized by JIA to help people with leprosy in 61 leprosy villages across Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Hubei and Hainan provinces. [Photo/Xinhua]