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| Dr. Fru |
On August 31, 2014, Dr. Fru Richard of the
Garden of Eden during a briefing with journalists on African Traditional Medicine
Day has declared that GENIWA will open it door to train interesting youths this
year. Addressing media practitioners at Blue Pearl Hotel in Bamenda, Dr. Fru
disclosed that this year’s celebration is commemorated under the theme, “Collaboration
between traditional medicine practitioners and conversional medicine
practitioners”.
He said during this year’s 12 anniversary,
expectations are high that Government officials and traditional healers will
share national experience on research and development of traditional medicine,
strategies for a plan for utilising traditional medicine, understand progress
made in regulation and institutionalising traditional medicine in health care
delivery, to create a formal relationship between government and traditional
health practitioners and to understand African traditional medicine profile.
Yet, this was not the case given that during the Press briefing, there was no
government official even though there is a department in the Ministry of Public
Health in charge of traditional medicines. He regretted that this department
has not been useful to researchers and practitioners given that “a day like
this is supposed to be organized by them but I am the one doing it”.
He also revealed that it is for these reasons
that they have decided to create a school for natural medicine in Bamenda. The
school he added will go operational by October this year.
Harping on the importance of African
traditional medicine, Dr. Fru said that statistics indicate that more than 80%
of the population relies solely on traditional medicine as a solution to their
health problems. In particular, the intricate relationship between African medicine
and some officials in the Ministry of Public Health is making traditional
medical practices key targets of attacks especially the so-called prosperity
preachers, who considered many African traditional religious rites and rituals
to be against Christian teachings and morals. Dr. Fru frowned at those who are
trying to destroy traditional medicine. He told journalists that he has a
collection of the list of those churches.
Holistic Health In traditional African
societies it is believed that good health, disease, success or misfortune are
not chance occurrences but arise from the actions of individuals and ancestral
spirits according to the balance or imbalance between the individual and the social environment. At the end of the briefing, Dr. Fru said that they have
removed traditional medicine from the mud and are on a crusade for it to gain
its position in society. He expressed thanks and recognition to the World
Health Organization for the trust they have in them.
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| Briefing with journalists |
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| Visit of the stands |
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| Group picture with cross-section of journalists |
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)
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