Free Homeopathic Clinic for the Palestinian
refugees in Beirut
The Homeopathic Clinics for Palestinian Refugee
Camps is a project that wants to serve the two largest Palestinian refugee camps
Sabra – Shatila and Borj El Barajne,bothlocated in
Beirut, Lebanon, by providing homeopathic medical care to
the resident of the camps and other low income foreign guest workers.
The areas allocated to the refugees by the
Lebanese government have proven to be inadequate to house the large number of
refugees, and this causes overcrowding with related hygienic and health issues.
Although the refugees are provided with free medical care and education by the
UNRWA, in real terms the quality of both is insufficient to satisfy the real
needs of the refugees living in the camps, not to speak of those who live in
unofficial camps.
UNRWA
clinics are established only in large
camps and function for just three hours a day, almost always limiting their
prescription to painkillers, which although it may be useful as palliative, it
certainly can’t eliminate all the illnesses, especially the chronic ones. People
have no choice but to seek private medical treatment, which they can ill
afford—most refugees in the camps are unemployed or doing odd jobs also due to
the government policy that bars them from being officially employed. Therefore
it becomes very difficult for the refugees to break out of the vicious cycle of
poverty, disease and anger towards society at large.
The AMURT Homeopathic Clinics for Palestinian Refugee
Camps wants to be part of our ongoing effort to promote—amongst other service
activities—hygienic practices and to provide health care to the neglected
section of society.
Homeopathic care is being increasingly recognized
as a safe and effective system of medicine and combined with healthy lifestyle
practices can dramatically improve the standard of health in these deprived
communities. The homeopathic clinics will give opportunities for its small
patients to get personalized medical care, free from harmful side effect.
Courses will be organised to teach interested people within the community how to
resolve simpler health ailments, usually happening within their families, using
time tested homeopathic remedies.
The location of the Palestinian refugee camps is often a casual one as when the
refugees arrived in Lebanon, in the distant 1949, the then government allocated
for them some free plots of land, imagining that this would only be a temporary
stay. More than fifty years have passed since, but the camps are still a reality
in which tens of thousands of people have to live, without much hope to see
their condition improved in the near future.
The
Palestinian people living in the refugee camps do not enjoy the socio-economic
development Lebanon that has been characterizing Lebanese society. Because of
their permanent uncertainty, they are condemned to live by the day, trying
somehow to survive, with the hope to return one day to Palestine. The camps are
a labyrinth of houses built with little or no technical –architectonic criteria.
The water supply system—in this case the word system is an euphemism—is
approximate, causing poor sanitation within the camp. Safe electric power supply
is also a dream, a maze of wires is often closely bound together with water
pipes and electrical switching boards are often causing dangerous fires.
Their
condition of permanent uninvited guests doesn’t permit Palestinian refugees to
legally seek jobs, so people are unable to break out of the vicious cycle of
poverty and disease, which often characterise their lives. Their children are hardly
motivated to complete their education because, even if they did, they couldn’t
anyway secure a proper job. Therefore joblessness and hopelessness is the main
occupation at the camps, and we all know they are the most effective ingredient
for breeding hatred and resentment against society.
Beirut
is a modern city which was once recognized as the financial capital of the
Middle East. It lost this important status because of the civil war which lasted
fifteen years. Most of its buildings were badly damaged during the armed
conflict, but they have been largely restored to their previous standard. In the
Palestinian refugee camps though, another reality affects the lives of hundred
of thousands of refugees, whose only original sin was to be born in a disputed
land. The medical system in the camps is run by the United Nations UNRWA, but it
appears that their service is not reaching all their intended beneficiaries due
to lacking budget, structures and personnel, and in some Camps it is altogether
inexistent.
Homeopathy is not only an economical system of medicine—no expensive equipments
are required—but beside providing relief in acute illnesses, it is most
beneficial in chronic cases and especially so when emotional traumas are the
source of disease.
Regular follow up of chronic patients can gradually restore their original
health, not by suppression of their symptoms with medicinal drugs but rather by
a gentle and safe stimulation of their own immune response mechanisms.
Because
homeopathic remedies are completely safe, we also envision motivating some of
the many talented and yet jobless people to learn the basics of homeopathy and
eventually become able to help people with simple health affections. They could
also play an important role in improving and monitor the hygienic practices
standard within the camp, which would in turn reduce the incidence of some of
the health related problems in the community.
Residents
of the camps from all age groups and gender. Low income foreign guest workers
living near the refugee camps; they come from Syria, Sudan, Egypt and
Philippines.
1.To rent in each camp the
physical space to be used as homeopathic clinic, so that every family can have a
reference point for all their health problems. The clinics will be open on
alternate days, for the whole day and depending on the difficulties of the
cases, could serve at least 150 patients a week. We also foresee the utilization
of volunteer homeopaths on a temporary basis and this should ensure the opening
of both clinics daily and to serve all of the population of the camps.
2
.To find, motivate and
train interested people to learn basic homeopathic knowledge for the benefit of
the community at large.
Search for suitable structures for the
proposed AMURT homeopathic clinics within the all the targeted Palestinian
refugees camps or their immediate vicinity.
Renovate the selected structures to include a
waiting room, a consultation room and a classroom with related furnishing
and sanitary facilities.
Inform all the intended beneficiaries of the
project through a public meeting in each camp and through volunteers.
Establish regular clinic days in each camp.
Preparations for phase II.
Note:
the volunteers are experienced in motivating people through enthusiasm and good
will, something badly needed in the camps.
Building on the certain successes of the
homeopathic care thus far given, create a tailored training course for local
homeopathic health giver volunteers.
Run the courses in the AMURT office located in Aramoun, Beirut.
Provide all the graduated of the courses a
kit with basic homeopathic remedies.
Invite volunteer homeopaths to join the
project on a temporary basis both to expand the reach of the service to
other Camps in the country and to a wider spectrum of the Camp’s population
Phase
I will start September 2005 and will be finished in September 2006. During this
period, Phase II will be prepared and will be implemented once the clinics have
proven beyond doubts to the community that they need this safe health service.
This will encourage the people to become self-sufficient in terms of health care
if they encourage some of their talented youth to learn homeopathy and practice
it within the camps.
1.Establishment
of homeopathic clinics in two Palestinian refugee camps.
2. Potentially
2939 children between 0 and 14 years of age from the Sabra/Shatila (see appendix
I for details) camp could be direct beneficiaries of personal homeopathic
consultations and remedies, and 6156 from the same age group in the Borj Al
Barajna camp (see appendix II for details).
3.Hygienic
practice education for all the refugees who care to improve their health and the
health condition within the camps.
4.Training
of the maximum number of volunteer homeopathic health care givers in each camp.
- We
will charge symbolic fees for the homeopathic remedies to
stimulate responsibility towards the treatment.
-
Would be volunteers will also pay very modest fees for the homeopathic course,
to stimulate responsibility towards their treatment program.
-The
volunteers created by the course will be able to continue the generic
homeopathic health care work and those more talented can be supported through
further studies.
These fees will contribute to the ongoing maintenance of the clinics and the
supply of homeopathic remedies.
