Founding members of IDEA from Brazil, China, India, Republic of Korea, and United States.

​Thirty years ago in 1994, in Petropolis, Brazil, 50 individuals from six countries gathered to form IDEA, The International Association for Integration, Dignity and Economic Advancement.  These individuals recognized the need to create an international organization to provide a global forum, to bring together individuals who have experienced Hansen’s disease/leprosy.
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IDEA was founded on the fundamental principal that people who have experienced Hansen’s disease/leprosy need to be recognized as an integral part of all approaches to the disease, from clinical, research and regulatory, to the economic and psycho-social impact on individuals and families.  Additionally, IDEA was created as an organization inclusive of different voices from different countries with different expertise, encompassing individuals newly diagnosed, as well as those forcibly separated from their families and communities prior to a cure.  The organization was established to promote connections among organizations and individuals, both those who had experienced the disease and those who had not, with its leaders composed primarily of people who had had Hansen's disease/leprosy.