Participation of PROMETRA International Chapters

The 27^th African Health Sciences Congress

December 2006 - Durban, South Africa – The 27^th African Health Sciences Congress was officially opened with prayers and ceremonies by traditional healers representing PROMETRA South Africa and PROMETRA Uganda.  This official traditional welcoming ceremony served as the debut to a scientific conference filled with presentations on multiple aspects of African traditional medicine.  View PROMETRA Abstracts

The co-hosts of the congress were the  University of Limpopo (Medunsa Campus) and the Medical Research Council, South Africa, The conference theme was Strengthening Resource Capacity and Transfer of Adequate Technology for an Integrated Development in Africa.  PROMETRA involvement was clearly visible throughout the conference:

• Professor Kensese S. Mossanda, PROMETRA South Africa's Executive Director, serves as the Congress Chairman and  Convenor

• Oral presentations were given by PROMETRA Representatives, Yahaya Sekagya (Uganda), Kit Taintor (Uganda), Virgina Floyd (USA), and Lelo Georges (DRC)

• Traditional healer and spiritualist representatives from PROMETRA Uganda and PROMETRA South Africa conducted the traditional opening ceremony and maintained a traditional shrine on the shore of the Indian Ocean in partnership with conference organizers.

• PROMETRA Chapters with local traditional medicine representatives provided materials and discussion in the Exhibit Area

COLLABORATION BETWEEN PROMETRA AND WHO/AFRO

TRADITIONAL PRACTITIONERS AT THE SCHOOL OF PRIMARY HEALTH CARE:

Doctors and traditional Healers, the hand in the hand

October 2006 - In sub-Saharan Africa, 85% of the population consult the wisdom of traditional medicine as a first recourse for their health problems. This was revealed last Monday in Fatick during the opening of the primary health training course for traditional Healers organized by PROMETRA International in collaboration with the World Health Organization-Regional Office for Africa (WHO/AFRO). It is especially a question of reinforcing collaboration between traditional Medicine and modern medicine so that they speak the same language.

In a world in full change, animated by issues of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) in Africa, health remains a considerable segment. Traditional medicine generally centered on the traditions and the endogenous knowledge of the community does not cease playing its role. Recent studies undertaken by the Organization for Promotion of Traditional Medicine (PROMETRA), showed that 85% of the African population first consult the traditional healers for their health problems. Thus, the impetus to promote collaboration between traditional medicine and conventional medicine becomes essential. With this report as its justification, the African MGD office, in the process of rehabilitating traditional medicines and in a canvassing of their introduction to Africa National Health Care Systems, subjected to PROMETRA International a test of tools for the continuous training of traditional Healers on primary health care. From October 30 to November 3 the wise of traditional medicine who come from the 11 regions of Senegal will be familiarized with the basic concepts for the assumption of responsibility of the health care (preventive medicine, public health, transmissible diseases, traditional medicine, no transmissible diseases).  Approximately fifty (50) healers will profit from this training course which began on Monday, October 30 in the Malango Center in Fatick.

The formation is ensured by certain personnel at the regional hospital in Fatick for the modern medicine component and by healers for the traditional medicine component. The tools placed at their disposal are provided by WHO/AFRO to PROMETRA International.  At the end of this five day seminar, the traditional Healers could be used as relays to convey messages of health to the most reclusive populations.  It will also allow that the Doctor, who wants to refer a patient to a healer, can address an open language to him and vice versa. According to Dr. Balla Mbacké Mboup, Head Doctor of Fatick who chaired the opening ceremony “it exists already a perfect collaboration since two to three years ago between healers and doctors in Fatick region and with the support of PROMETRA there is a framework of reference and of counter-reference between two medicines. This formation marks a decisive turning point and thus comes to consolidate this already existing collaboration”. The visit at the Malango Center enabled us to make that affirmation more clearly. At our arrival there, the collaboration was perfect between healers and doctors. The center is constituted of ten cases where each one has the name of a rural community of Fatick. The personnel is mainly made up of traditional Healers and nurses.

Doctors testify and evaluate the results obtained by the healers but also consult the patients before forwarding them to the suitable healer. Several researches were carried out on diabetes, dermatosis, HIV/AIDS and on other affections with satisfactory results which permitted the center to have several patented medicines. President of PROMETRA Senegal, Mrs Boury Niang, highlighted that in addition to this training, PROMETRA plans to work with hundred (100) traditional practitioners of the 11 regions of Senegal for the readjustment of their knowledge to the requirements of our time.

PROMETRA Ghana Partnership with WHO Collaborating Centre  for Research Into Plant Medicine

September 2006 - PROMETRA Ghana President, Togbega Dabra VI announced the official signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Research Into Plant Medicine (Mampong-Akwapem).  The title of this partnership is, “MOU for Collaboration in Safety, Efficacy and Quality Assessment of Herbal Medicinal Products in Ghana”. [review full MOU]

AFRICAN TRADITIONAL MEDICINE DAY

The fourth annual African Traditional Medicine Day, instituted by the World Health Organization (WHO), will be held on August 31, 2006, under the topic: "Intensifying Collaboration Between Practitioners Of Traditional Medicine And Those of Conventional Medicine."

Message of Dr. Erick Gbodossou, President of PROMETRA International

August 2006 - Traditional Medicine – Policies That Serve and Protect Populations:  For a Judicious Introduction of Traditional Medicine into National Health Care Systems of the Third World, Erick V. A. Gbodossou, MD, Virginia Davis Floyd, MD, MPH.

In sub-Saharan Africa, 80-85% of the population receives its health care and health education from practitioners of raditional medicine. In some African nations the practice of traditional medicine is merely tolerated or technically remains illegal – yet it is the largest provider of health care services to the populations living with HIV.  PROMETRA International conducted a two year educational, research and advocacy project to confront the issues impeding the incorporation of traditional medicine into national health care systems of African nations.  Partnering with WHO/AFRO, NEPAD and national governments efforts were undertaken in five nations – Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau and Senegal – to work through the legislative and political processes to promote the legalization and official recognition of traditional medicine.