Reflection
Acknowledgements:
Beth and I have been working together on various projects in East Africa since 2007. We’ve done relief work and trainings at a variety of venues in Kenya and Uganda, and find that our working styles complement and ‘synergize’ well. We met up at the NADA (National Acupuncture Detoxification Association) annual conference in New Orleans last month, which I was able to attend on my return from working on the coast of Kenya. We also met, and were inspired by the usual stunning array of NADA superstars and heroes who are doing amazing work all over the world. Among these was Julia Raneri, who had just returned from another trip to post-earthquake Haiti.
Julia is the Ground Operations Manager for Acupuncturists Without Borders in Haiti, which has mounted the profession’s biggest relief effort to that country, sending in teams of acupuncturists who have provided thousands of treatments to alleviate pain and suffering for physical and psychological trauma. Julia and her AWB colleague Diane Eggleston have been an invaluable source of information including how to most effectively provide service, local contacts, procedures for interfacing with the UN and local government, and how to personally prepare ourselves to maximize our usefulness there.
Also at the conference, we met Emmanuelle Mouy and her colleague Dr. Gilbert Grossman, of NADA France. Emmanuelle has been pivotal in helping us to translate our slimmed down NADA manual into French. On the internet, I found my way to Marie-Therese Laminet of NADA Switzerland who had published some documents about NADA that she was generous enough to share with us. And rounding out the French manual translation team, Dominique Druguet, a friend of mine who is something of a renaissance man (dentist, farmer, world traveler) has been very patient with my late night, last-minute translation and editing requests.
For the Creole version of the manual, we relied completely on people I’ve never met, but who were referred to us through folks like Emmanuelle who brought on board Genevieve Greveche, who did the bulk of the Creole translations, and Philippe Moutama who helped with editing. Leila Laraque graciously joined our efforts through messages passed through Pascale Piquion, Jennifer Walker, and Ryan Bemis of NADA. It really has been incredible how this network has developed.
Louise, from Imagik Office Equipment in Florida, has provided printing services for our projects several times, and again came through by printing the various versions of our manual for this trip.
Naturopaths International is our host organization. They are allowing Beth and I to tag along with their team of doctors who will themselves be providing service in Haiti by taking in medical supplies and setting up a mobile field clinic in Port-au-Prince in collaboration with Grass Roots United and Burners Without Borders. Their level of organization and preparation is impressive, and allows us some peace of mind in regard to security, lodging and logistics.
Garth Van’t Hul was a Peace Corps Volunteer in West Africa with me a million years ago. He is now working for CARE, and has lived in Haiti and been there after the ‘quake, so he had some very useful insights into what we can expect and how best to prepare.
Donation of materials has come from far and wide. Ruchira Ananda is the founder/director of Abha Light Foundation in Nairobi and has provided us with various medicinals so we can stay healthy, and to bring to the people of Haiti. Huynh Quang, the dynamic spearhead of NADA Vietnam has provided bead boards (for putting together acupressure beads). ACP has also donated needles, as have a number of people from the TCMCH community.
Other friends and family are providing other items and services to make my trip smoother. My sister Sara, who has been helping me with preparatory errands and moral support, will be taking care of my son Judah while I’m away. Rick Cole, Beth’s husband, is doing the same sort of preparation support for Beth in Florida, and has generally been a facilitator for our trips. Pamela Perkins is a long time friend who somehow has a knack for donating supplies that come in extremely useful in my travels. For this trip she is providing things like my sleeping bag and water filter.
Of course, none of this would be possible or happening if it hadn’t been for the vision and dedication of NADA’s founder Dr. Michael Smith, who has developed this simple and effective protocol so useful for such a broad swath of health issues. We are thankful for this opportunity to bring it to the people of Haiti.