This article was written by Rebecca Stirrup, from New Zealand. She is an experienced registered Homeopath who volunteers in Africa. Here is a little insight into her journey when she visits and helps support locals with Homeopathy.
Disclaimer: Patients in Africa carry on taking their Antiretroviral medications, they are never taken off them. Homeopathy supports along-side their treatment plan.
The evasive and shy Mount Kilimanjaro acts like a magnet to us returning volunteers as much as the promise of seeing the follow-ups of our patients from earlier visits. Just as I never know when “The Kili” will emerge from the clouds in all its magnificence, I never know which patients I will see again as I drive to an outreach clinic. However, the reward has proved to always be there if you are prepared to come back.
My latest visit, 3 years after my first volunteer stint, had such rewards. Not only did “The Kili” offer some fantastic views on several evenings and early mornings but I was able to enjoy seeing the long term follow-ups of many patients and get a real sense of the successful case management that Homeopathy For Health In Africa achieves for so many of its clients. Many of these people are HIV positive and come with a myriad of health problems in the initial phase of their illness. Three years on, with successful homeopathic care, I have found they often present with only mild acute illnesses or require a repeat of their remedy if and when some of their symptoms recur.
A typical case is a woman I first saw in September 2013. She is HIV positive. Her husband died in 2007 and she worries very much about her five children and is very sad. She had many physical symptoms including stomach ulcers, vertigo, numbness of the legs, and chest pain. Natrum muriaticum helped her tremendously for the first year. I saw her again in July 2014 but this time prescribed Oncorhynchus (Salmon) as everything had improved except her menses, which had been absent for 4 months. Then, as her menses had returned, other volunteers repeated Natrum muriaticum over the next year or two, and her health continued to steadily improve and her CD4 count rose substantially. By September 2016, when I saw her again, three years after her initial prescription, all she required was Mercurius for an acute. For the previous three days, she had a sore throat, mouth ulcers, and swollen tonsils. This is the beauty of homeopathy.
The HHA project here in Tanzania has enabled me to witness many such cases as this. In addition, I have gained many friends amongst the outreach clinic organisers who support their communities. They provide the space for HHA clinics and inform everyone about our weekly or monthly visits. It is great to be welcomed back and to know how well-respected homeopathy is in their communities. This kind of continuity has enabled me to really understand the complexities of long term case management in chronic disease, and the guidance of Jeremy and Camilla Sherr in this process is exceptional.
This article was published with full permission from the author. Thank you.
