Traditional Healthcare
Traditional Healthcare is an Australian based not-for-profit charitable organisation committed to the development of sustainable healthcare facilities for underprivileged communities. Traditional Healthcare's current campaign is the development of a sustainable clinic in Jharkhand, India.
AbOUT Traditional Healthcare
Established in 2008, Traditional Healthcare began after two Australian acupuncturists travelled to the remote village of Pundag, India to volunteer their time.
The Pundag clinic was treating up to 70 patients a day, the volunteers where confronted with a wide range of ailments from simple aches and pains to very complicated disorders and pathologies. The desperation for treatment and the lack of facilities in the area saw patients travelling for up to three days to seek treatment.
The manager of the acupuncture clinic then took the volunteers to the even more remote village of Datom, to treat people who previously had never received any kind of medical treatment due to isolation, poverty and desolation. Datom is a small, remote village located in the state of Jharkhand. With no medical facilities within a 100 km radius, the people of this area are in desperate need of healthcare. On arriving, the volunteers were shown to a dilapidated hut that was to be their clinic. Immediately the volunteers were inundated with patients. The need for a healthcare clinic in the area was all too evident.
Upon seeing the great success of the acupuncture clinic in Pundag, and the need for another clinic in Datom, Traditional Healthcare was established shortly after arriving back in Australia. The aim is to start construction of the Datom clinic in January 2010 and to raise $50,000AU to build and fit out the facility. With renewable energy, ongoing volunteer base, and education facilities, Traditional Healthcare clinics are sustainable in every sense of the word.
Traditional Healthcare is run by Melbourne volunteers, who are not affiliated with any religious bodies.
Sustainability
Traditional Healthcare believes that with a conscious design and maintenance of clinic buildings and gardens that are engineered with productive eco-systems which have the diversity, stability and resilience of a natural eco-system. Traditional Healthcare endeavour's to be self sufficient in every possible way. With aspects like wind power, solar power, water conservation, permaculture, sustainable architecture, the use of recycled materials and traditional medicines. The aim of Traditional Healthcare is not to be completely dependent on continual funding of each clinic as the goal is self sufficiency. In particular they are focusing on Sustainable architecture, Wind power, and Solar power.
Education
An educational component is essential to the sustainability of the clinics. The facilities are designed with this imperative in mind. The educational program consists of two core elements, community education and practitioner training.
Community Development
Traditional Healthcare development projects incorporate a community development approach which is underpinned by the values of ecological sustainability, social justice and human rights. It is for this reason that they concentrate efforts in remote areas where often the most deprived and disadvantaged people live.
In this sense the development projects are also about empowerment, whereby the people for whom the facilities are going to be built, are being consulted and included in all stages of the building process. Moreover, community development enables disadvantaged people to have the opportunity to voice their needs and desires which guides them to take steps toward higher fulfillment and empowerment.
With our planet facing a major environmental crisis, community development embraces the ecological principles of sustainability, diversity and ideas of organic and balanced development. In the light of global warming, such principles have become ever more important. Consequently, Traditional Healthcare's building projects are designed to according environmentally sustainable principles. For example, the current project in Jharkhand (India) will be built with local renewable resources and be powered by solar and wind generators.
Practitioner Training
Practitioner training will be provided at all of the facilities, the educational programs will vary depending on location. First Aid and hygiene will be taught at all facilities. Other programs will include acupuncture training (basic and advanced), herbal medicine, massage, mid-wifery, permaculture, and medicinal herb cultivation.
Projects
Current Project
Datom, Jarkhand, India.
The current project is the construction of a clinic in Datom India. Datom is a remote village in the state of Jarkhand.
Bishwanath is currently providing an acupuncture service to the inhabitants of this village, however with no clinical facilities the number of patients treated in one day is rather limited. Bishwanath wanders from household to household treating those in need for donation, as there are no other available healthcare facilities within approximately a 100 km radius. With the construction of the new facility, Bishwanath will be better able to focus his energies on treating the many people in desperate need.
The facility is designed according to Traditional Healthcare's principles of sustainability, incorporating environmental architecture and renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power. The clinic will be able to treat up to 20 people at one time, allowing the treatment of up to 300 people per day. To begin with the clinic will focus primarily on acupuncture as the primary modality because resources and practitioners are already available, however in future Traditional Healthcare wants to expand to incorporate a wider range of modalities. A class room, co-ordinators office, medicinal herb garden and volunteer accommodation has been incorporated into the design. Construction has been scheduled to begin in January 2010.
Future Projects
Broome, Western Australia.
Cambodia in collaboration with Big Heart project
Alice Springs in collaboration with Medicine Tree NT