Bela

We have an intern at work, Mia Hadrill, who wrote a children's book about a wee girl called Bela in India who gets leprosy and about what happens to her. With the idea for this story, she contacted Edinburgh College of Art to see if any students wanted to take on the illustration of the story as a project, and was astounded how many offers she got. An illustrator, Jessica Kettle, was chosen, and she started work, and over several months she drew the most fantastic pictures to help tell Bela's story.

The book is now in its final stages, and Mia and Jessica are using Kickstarter to try and raise the funds required to get it published. It's a website which helps fund creative projects by allowing the general public to pledge money towards them. If the full sum is pledged, the project goes ahead, if not, then it doesn't, it's all or nothing. We very much hope that it does as The Leprosy Mission Scotland wants to send these books all round Scottish schools to help kids learn about leprosy, stigma and discrimination. Please have a look at the site and their wee video, and Jessica's amazing illustrations.