Volunteering: a life-changing experience
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My time in Maun volunteering as a homeopath was life changing. I have come home inspired and wanting to feel the same level of satisfaction from my work here that I encountered there.
Each day was a new and varied experience. The main clinic is based in Maun and some days we would practise there but on many other days we travelled to different villages to provide outreach clinics for these isolated communities. Sometimes we would practise outside under a tree, other days we would fly up to one of the safari camps to treat the staff. The work was fascinating and satisfying. The patients we saw responded really well and I got to see homoeopathy making a real difference to peoples’ health and lives.
The work can be challenging as there are lots of new things to get used such as taking cases through a translator and driving on roads littered with cows, donkeys and goats. However I felt well supported on the Project – by Hilary (the Project Director) from England and by weekly personal supervision which is part of the support package. In Maun there are ‘friends of the Project’ who looked out for me and the 3 local trainee homoeopath/office staff were very supportive too. The accommodation I stayed in was simple but comfortable and pretty.
If you feel your work is stuck in a familiar comfortable rut and you would like to experience feeling really alive every day, and you want to make a difference, then I highly recommend this experience. It could change your life!
Susan Marmot, Registered Homeopath
Volunteers overcome flooding to reach clients in the Okavango Delta
Seasonal flooding is usual in the Okavango Delta so we are used to the varying water levels when traveling to the isolated villages and safari camps (where we do clinics for staff). But 2011 brought unexpectedly higher levels of flooding than usual – and this has meant challenges and adventure for our team of volunteer homeopaths and staff trying to reach their destination. Instead of traveling by 4WD vehicle or 6 seater plane (spectacular views, stomach churning experience) direct to the villages and safari camps, we have had to be transported by boat too – often for journeys taking up to 3 hours in the heat of temperatures up to 44 degrees and meeting hippopotamus and basking crocodiles along the way!
New opportunities for our staff in Maun
We are delighted to announce that after several years of dedicated work running our Maun and Outreach Clinics, Lebo and Wasanapi have been promoted to the roles of joint Clinic Coordinators. Lebo will running the clinics in Maun including recruiting and managing a new receptionist, and Wasa will be taking particular responsibility for the Outreach Programme – an area of our work that is his passion.
This development is an opportunity for Irene too – she’s now able to give more of her time to studying to be a homeopath, which she loves. While she’s stepping back from her full time role as Clinic Manager, we’re pleased that she will continue to work with Hilary in fundraising and doing research for the MHP.
Volunteer, Elin Forster, with our staff/trainees – Wasanapi Kapii, Lebo Sarwanyane and Irene Mohiemang and our new vehicle
Urgent – we need more volunteer homeopaths
Are you a registered homeopath looking for a life changing experience? Volunteering for the Maun Homeopathy Project would give you the chance to travel to Botswana, live and work inside another culture, immerse yourself in the practice of homeopathy and be open to the many challenges and inspirations that being part of our team there would offer you. As well as practicing in the Mowana Clinic in Maun and supporting our trainee homeopaths there, you would also be participating in our outreach programme which includes running clinics in the beautiful Okavango Delta and treating people in the isolated communities there.
For more information, please email me at: mhp@homeopathybotswana.com
Hilary Fairclough, Director
A Successful Fundraising Seminar Day
Thanks to the 5 speakers, to all the homeopaths who attended and to Neals Yard Remedies who provided us with a spacious room in Central London, we raised a fantastic £830 at the Seminar Day “Tools for a Busy Homeopath” Sunday 16th October. An inspiring and enjoyable day was had by all!
A day to inspire your practice
When homeopathy is your passion it is good to feed yourself – this one day experiential workshop, “Tools for the Busy Homeopathy” gives you an opportunity to be inspired by 3 sets of speakers and their approaches to different aspects of the practitioner’s life.
Sun 16th October, 10am – 5pm
Neal’s Yard Education Room, London WC2H 9DP.
Cost only £45 ( all proceeds go direct to the Maun Homeopathy Project)
Some places still available – please contact me today to ensure a place: mhp@homeopathybotswana.com
Robert Barker (founder of HSC) & Sherry White RSHom,
Fulfilling your potential
Are you financially successful in your practice? Do you have a steady stream of clients or is it feast or famine? Do you feel good about the payment you receive for the service you provide? Sherry and Robert share a passion for practitioner support and self-care and together they will be helping you clear the emotional blocks that hold you back from achieving your full potential.
Sally Ann Hutcheson RSHom & Nicky Lee RSHom, founders of Energy Diagnosis Therapy (EDT)
De-toxing the patient
Sally Ann and Nicky have devised a protocol which they call EDT. Their years of experience showed them that Homoeopathic Remedies can achieve a lot, but modern life has presented blocks that can prevent the remedies from fulfilling their potential. Sally Ann and Nicky will show how, using a very simple kinesiology technique that can be easily learned, they can identify the blocks, and find the remedies, potency, and dosage that offer a way forward. They will illustrate the talk with a variety of complicated cases from their practices, and will incorporate some practical work to show you how easy it is to identify what toxins are blocking the way, where they’re lurking, what will shift them and how to support the organs in the process. They will share with you some of the most wonderfully therapeutic remedies from different ranges of complex homeopathy.
Tim Lloyd MCPH, Vice Principal College of Practical Homeopathy
Male Patients
In our homeopathic practices we can sometimes find that men are difficult to treat. Tim will look at the different approaches that may be helpful with male patients – how to create a bond with a male patient in order to get the information you need, rather than the information they think you want; how to reveal a man’s innermost thoughts without leaving him feeling naked; and how to help the patient deal with emotional issues or trauma. Tim will also look at some male-specific pathologies including the pros and cons of circumcision (both early and later on in life), erectile dysfunction and infertility.
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Hilary Fairclough
We have a new vehicle!
Thanks to your generous support we have been able to buy a new (second hand) vehicle to make sure we can reach the isolated communities in the Okavango Delta and Bush that so desperately need our help. The vehicle is a 1996 four wheel drive RAV4 – it’s smaller than our previous Land Cruiser, but is easier for the volunteers and staff to drive and will be a lot cheaper to run. Hopefully it will be less expensive to maintain too!
We’re in the News!
Yesterday news of our Clinic appeared in one of the main Botswana newspapers, The Daily News, and the phone hasn’t stopped ringing since! The paper interviewed our Clinic Manager Irene Mohiemang and one of our volunteers, Cherry Kingman who talked about our work and what homeopathy can do for the people of Maun.
For the full article follow this link www.dailynews.gov.bw/cgi-bin/news.cgi?d=20110726 and scroll down to “Homeopathy Holistic Approach to Health.”
New Local Trainees
We are delighted to report that we have 2 new trainees in homeopathy in partnership with The College of Practical Homeopathy. Irene Mohiemang and Lebo Sarwanyane started their training January 2011 and are progressing well. Tuesdays are ‘training days’ when Irene, Lebo and our other trainee, Wasanapi, study their next lesson and are assisted by the volunteer homeopaths.
Irene is also our Clinic Manager and Lebo is our Clinic Administrator. Irene has a degree in Chemistry and a Doctorate in Education. Lebo has been our Administrator for several years and we are thrilled she is now starting her path to becoming a fully professional homeopath, alongside Wasanapi and Irene.
A new home for the Mowana Clinic
Going Back to the Lutheran Church.
Early in 2010 we needed a new home. Rates to rent commercial premises in the centre of Maun are increasingly expensive so we approached our long-term partner, the Lutheran Church, which happily had a large room available.
A reasonable rent was agreed and the necessary conversion work done (we had the room divided into 4 separate spaces: reception, 2 consulting rooms and a pharmacy) and in March 2010 we were open for business!
An advert in the local paper, a large roadside sign and word of mouth combined let people know where we can be found and now for 3 days a week we have people crowded in our small reception area waiting to be seen for treatment.