Having worked behind the scenes with Homeopathy for Health in Africa (HHA) since its inception 8 years ago I was finally fortunate enough to travel to Moshi and visit for the first time in January 2017.
BACKGROUND
Until then for me HHA had been purely administration duties ranging from emails, balancing bank accounts, months of pouring over constitutional documentation to glossy calendar photographs (with a house turned into a delivery sub post office at Christmas to deliver said calendars). At last I got to see what it was all about for myself.
I was completely blown away by the project not only because of the great work that is being done, but by how organised it is. In only 8 years Jeremy and Camilla have worked tirelessly to be the vital driving force behind making this vision the reality that we see today – 20 clinics and over 6000 patients, with real sustainability and momentum to go forward and continue growing.
HHA CLINIC
Today HHA has not just Jeremy and Camilla but an ever growing local team. They have worked hard to create robust systems and procedures that have enabled HHA to get formal NGO Status.
LOCAL HOMEOPATHS
Since the project has started HHA has trained two’ locally grown’ homeopaths – Patience and Simon. It is great to see local people trained and working with the project. Whilst I was there I also met the current students Alisha and Anitha who are training with the 4Kenya School. They came to outreach clinics with the Intern students, which were excellent learning opportunities with Jeremy, Camilla and Jane. Jeremy keeps a very close eye on them and it was wonderful to see his mentoring.
INTERNSHIPS
I had timed my visit to coincide with internship students. I wanted to see firsthand how the intern program works, as it is a good source of income for the project. There were two interns there and I was able to visit outreach clinics with them. The grass roots homeopathy learning opportunity that the Internship program offers is outstanding. I have been so inspired by this that I will be promoting this to UK colleges. The learning is good, sound repertorisation and Materia Medica when taking cases, complemented by individual classroom learning from Jeremy and Camilla.
OUTREACH CLINICS
I travelled to the Mwanga village clinic with Camilla, Roger (translator) and Interns. In one clinic day patients ranged from a 4 year old boy, to an 80 year old woman. I was amazed that people travel for miles to get to outreach clinics and sit sometimes for an hour waiting patiently to be seen.
DEAF CLINIC
This particular clinic interested me the most. This clinic works with 40 students at Moshi Technical College. Lost or impaired hearing is common in Africa due to malaria/malarial medication/meningitis amongst other causations. HHA were invited into a local secondary college to work with deaf students. In 2016 a Clinical Audit, sponsored by the Swedish Association of Scientific Homeopathy, was carried out to assess the impact of homeopathic treatment on deaf patients.
Data shows good initial results:
Over two thirds of the sample had measurable improvement in at least one ear (using audiograms) in hearing, the most common causation was malaria medication followed by congenital deafness. From a research perspective this is a very exciting and feasible starting point to develop a more formalized research trial.
SUMMARY
For me this has been a wonderful opportunity to see HHA first hand, to experience the work done every day at a grass roots level. As a homeopath I was inspired by the sound classical homeopathy being practiced. As a fellow human being I was incredibly moved by the good work that goes on day in day out with HHA, not just with homeopathy but with other help programs like food parcels and eye glasses. As a ‘systems person’ I was impressed with the organization I saw – record keeping, accounts, and training protocols etc. This is what underpins a vision becoming a sustainable reality and is behind the growth in HHA becoming a registered NGO. I feel honored and privileged to be part of this.
