HOMEOPATHS WITHOUT BORDERS LEND HELPING HAND (PAGE 35, MIRRROR, NOV 28)

From Tim Dzamboe, Ho

A team of experienced classical homeopaths from “Homeopaths without Borders” are in the country to organise training courses for practising homeopaths to strengthen their capacity and professional development.
The team, which arrived in Accra last Friday, October 9, were from the Netherlands, India and the United Kingdom and will stay until November 18.
An Accra-based Classical Homeopath, Mr Julius M.K. Berdie, told The Mirror that the team would meet with officials of the Ministry of Health to discuss the development of homeopathy in Ghana and to organise clinical sessions for the public and other activities to raise awareness on homeopathy.
He said classical homeopathy is that branch of medical practice that focuses on the whole person instead of concentrating on the disease alone.
Mr Berdie, who is the programme co-ordinator, said it was discovered by a German physician called Dr Samuel Hahnemann based on the principle of “like cures like”, adding that a substance that causes a disease condition in a normal healthy person will cure a similar disease condition when given to a sick person.
He said homeopathic medicines, usually called remedies, were prepared as highly diluted solutions from sources such as plants, animals, minerals, diseased and normal tissues or organs.
He added that homeopathy is a natural healing system as the homeopathic remedy only stimulated the body’s own immune system to jump-start the healing process, stating that the body has the capacity to restore its own capacity to heal itself.
Mr Berdie said homeopathy was a safe and effective treatment for acute and chronic diseases in children and adults and that it had shown significant success and helped populations throughout the world in past and present epidemics such as the cholera outbreak in Europe from 1831-32, swine flu epidemic in Europe, and the recent seasonal epidemic after the Asian Tsunami.
According to him, the World Health Organisation (WHO) recognised homeopathy as an alternative and complementary medical practice in 1985, adding that homeopathy was recognised by the Ministry of Health as one of the alternative medical practices.
He recalled that in 1994 Homeopaths without Borders started a training programme for a few homeopaths in Ghana but it was suspended in 2000 due to lack of funds, adding that the current training programme covered clinical diagnosis, homeopathic philosophy, materia medica, case taking and case management.
Clinical sessions will be held in the afternoons for the general public and that people with chronic conditions can take advantage of these sessions at the Emmanuel Presbyterian Church Conference Room at Osu from 2p.m. to 4 p.m. Similar sessions will be held in Kumasi.