Beyond North America - Sri Lanka
HWB Sponsors Mission to Assist after Tsunami --March 2005
Homeopaths Without Borders is the sponsoring organization for the mission to help the tsunami survivors. Contributions were made by Washington Homeopathic Products and Natural Health Supply, providing the homeopathic remedies .
We, 2 doctors from United States, Dr.Luc De Schepper, MD, from Santa Fe, NM and me, Dr.George Strom, NMD from Boston, MA arrived at Bandaranaike airport near Colombo, Sri Lanka on March 5, 2005 at 5 am of local time, which corresponds to 6 pm of the ET(Massachusetts). In Colombo alp was a first surprise: my luggage was lost, or simply not arrived with me. I filed report, with hope, that it will be found later. There was all my summer cloth, personal hygiene stuff and, and the most important, my new digital camera Minolta Dimage with charger. Also, some medical equipment, like, Stethoscope and the Blood pressure Kit. I do not remember what else, but what I listed was bad enough. Imagine, I came from Boston, with 2 feet of snow and 30F to 95F and high humidity in my corduroy pants, and flannel shirt?
We took a taxi to Joe De Livera residence, the local businessman , and now friend of ours, who is passionately involved in organizing and promoting homeopathy here in Sri Lanka. He generously allowed us to spend the rest of the day at his house. His wife and her 2 sisters were our first patients . They have been suffering from arthritis and sciatica. Dr.Luc took their cases and prepared homeopathic remedies with instructions how to take it. While making trip to Colombo we were learning about the lifestyle of the local population . Dr.Luc said it similar to Kenya; he knows better, I did not know about Kenya. It reminds me more of Mexico, the average poor level contrasting with some rich areas.
Joe De Livera organized a homeopathic meeting later in the afternoon at his Villa. It was 4 local men, practicing homeopathy here and one Lady-homeopath, formerly from Germany. She is a home/friends practitioner .The local homeopaths do not have a professional homeopathic education, they are all are self-educated, and this created a big problem, as they far behind the advances in Homeopathy we learned in the school and seminars. But one thing in common: they all desire to settle and organize the professional education here, in Sri Lanka, and need to establish a Homeopathic medical system legally recognized by the Government and Medical society. Read more.
We, 2 doctors from United States, Dr.Luc De Schepper, MD, from Santa Fe, NM and me, Dr.George Strom, NMD from Boston, MA arrived at Bandaranaike airport near Colombo, Sri Lanka on March 5, 2005 at 5 am of local time, which corresponds to 6 pm of the ET(Massachusetts). In Colombo alp was a first surprise: my luggage was lost, or simply not arrived with me. I filed report, with hope, that it will be found later. There was all my summer cloth, personal hygiene stuff and, and the most important, my new digital camera Minolta Dimage with charger. Also, some medical equipment, like, Stethoscope and the Blood pressure Kit. I do not remember what else, but what I listed was bad enough. Imagine, I came from Boston, with 2 feet of snow and 30F to 95F and high humidity in my corduroy pants, and flannel shirt?
We took a taxi to Joe De Livera residence, the local businessman , and now friend of ours, who is passionately involved in organizing and promoting homeopathy here in Sri Lanka. He generously allowed us to spend the rest of the day at his house. His wife and her 2 sisters were our first patients . They have been suffering from arthritis and sciatica. Dr.Luc took their cases and prepared homeopathic remedies with instructions how to take it. While making trip to Colombo we were learning about the lifestyle of the local population . Dr.Luc said it similar to Kenya; he knows better, I did not know about Kenya. It reminds me more of Mexico, the average poor level contrasting with some rich areas.
Joe De Livera organized a homeopathic meeting later in the afternoon at his Villa. It was 4 local men, practicing homeopathy here and one Lady-homeopath, formerly from Germany. She is a home/friends practitioner .The local homeopaths do not have a professional homeopathic education, they are all are self-educated, and this created a big problem, as they far behind the advances in Homeopathy we learned in the school and seminars. But one thing in common: they all desire to settle and organize the professional education here, in Sri Lanka, and need to establish a Homeopathic medical system legally recognized by the Government and Medical society. Read more.
HWB Supports Aid Project in Sri Lanka
In summary, after my first six months of full-time community work I accepted a job in a hotel as the resident homeopath and spa manager. One day a week though I continued my community work in various clinics. Volunteers came over to help, including Kate Diamantopoulos from the UK/ Australia, and Bie Maes, a wonderful Belgian homeopath. Through them, and through contacts of Kuldeep Jain of BJain publishers, I received funding, donations of remedies and books, pretty much everything needed to sustain a clinic. A couple in England through Kate donated a few thousand dollars (which goes a long way in Sri Lanka), which prompted me to leave my job in the hotel and once again take up my community work full-time, now that I could afford to do that!
At this stage, the clinic was being run from the Peraliya Community Health Centre, a project conducted by a German maxillofacial surgeon Dr Thomas Stein, an architect Justin Hill and a Sri Lankan Deepal Wickramasinghe. I joined the centre full-time, coordinating projects (teaching English classes, etc.) as well as the homeopathy. Dr. de Zoysa, the local Sri Lankan homeopath who had volunteered with me over the past year, was installed full time as the medical manager of the centre. Consequently, he remains there seeing patients daily for the price equal to 25 cents.
Read more.
At this stage, the clinic was being run from the Peraliya Community Health Centre, a project conducted by a German maxillofacial surgeon Dr Thomas Stein, an architect Justin Hill and a Sri Lankan Deepal Wickramasinghe. I joined the centre full-time, coordinating projects (teaching English classes, etc.) as well as the homeopathy. Dr. de Zoysa, the local Sri Lankan homeopath who had volunteered with me over the past year, was installed full time as the medical manager of the centre. Consequently, he remains there seeing patients daily for the price equal to 25 cents.
Read more.