Acupuncture Ambassadors

I wish to introduce you to an idea in progress. I invite you all to comment, suggest  and pass this on to any and all who can give energy for its manifestation.

Acupuncture Ambassadors
Mission Statement

“To contribute to the medical care of disadvantaged peoples worldwide by generating greater self -reliance through the teaching and application of basic acupuncture principles. To that end our volunteer acupuncture practitioner/diplomats spread the knowledge and value of Traditional Asian Medicine as a powerful and viable healthcare modality throughout developing nations.”

We do this by sharing knowledge with local medical practitioners, doctors, nurses, and medical assistants, by imparting theoretical and practical training in acupuncture. We provide the teaching supplies and the necessary acupuncture equipment, then maintain follow-up evaluations as an addition to overall public and primary health care systems.

Why Acupuncture?

Overview:
Worldwide research studies conclude that the positive health benefits of Acupuncture are both curative and preventive. The renowned United Nation's based World Health Organization (WHO) lists more than 40 conditions for which acupuncture is a useful treatment; including immunity compromised patients such as those with (HIV/Aids). In addition, acupuncture protocols can be initiated in emergency situations where normal life saving equipment is neither available nor affordable.

In accordance to the needs of developing nations conditions appropriate for Acupuncture Therapy are as follows:

Digestive: Abdominal pain, Constipation, Diarrhea, Hyperacidity, Indigestion    

Emotional: Anxiety, Depression, Insomnia, Nervousness, and Neurosis and PTSD   

Eye-Ear-Nose-Throat: Cataracts, Gingivitis, Poor vision, Tinnitus, Toothache    

Gynecological: Infertility, Menopausal symptoms, Premenstrual syndrome

Addiction Control

Athletic performance, and Blood pressure regulation
Chronic fatigue, Immune system support, Stress reduction, Diabetes    

Musculoskeletal: Arthritis, Back pain, Muscle cramping, Muscle pain/weakness, Neck pain, Sciatica    

Neurological: Headaches, Migraines, Neurogenic Bladder dysfunction, Parkinson's disease, Postoperative pain, Stroke   

Respiratory: Asthma, Bronchitis, Common cold, and Sinusitis, Smoking cessation, Tonsillitis    

Source: World Health Organization, United Nations

     - Health care practitioners (doctors, nurses, medical assistants) trained in acupuncture are much more self-reliant. There is even a series of acupuncture protocols that can be initiated in emergency situations where conventional life saving equipment is not available.

      - Acupuncture affords significant savings in medicines, which in these developing nations are often expensive and hard to come by.

      - Humanitarian assistance through acupuncture is also inexpensive, since the total cost, paid by Acupuncture Ambassadors, is essentially limited to the following:

            - air and ground transportation costs, food and lodging expenses for the volunteer      practitioners/diplomats;
            - teaching supply costs;
            - costs for acupuncture supplies.

      - This kind of humanitarian assistance, which helps the local economy, is useful in reducing dependency on Western largesse and contacts.

-    The teaching of acupuncture thus contributes to the preservation of human dignity amongst aid recipients.

-    The teaching of acupuncture and the theories of Traditional Asian Medicine also creates and fosters a common language, a global language, in which all acupuncture practitioners and patients worldwide can communicate thus solidifying international relationships and cross-cultural bonds betweens citizens of countries of the world. A healthier more productive, cohesive and inter-connected world united by the common language of Acupuncture and Traditional Asian Medicine.

The Role of Acupuncture Ambassadors

Acupuncture Ambassadors conceives and carries out humanitarian missions in developing countries, with the aim of training acupuncture practitioners. Initial focus will be Southeast Asia ie. Cambodia, Thailand, Viet Nam, India, but not limited to any opportunity for service.

      What is the period for a mission of Acupuncture Ambassadors?
      - An exploratory mission permits us to plan a course of action and secure the agreement of local authorities (health ministries, heads of clinics, etc.): the questions decided include length of stay, participants, available medical facilities, and coordination of the training program.

      - Acupuncture Ambassadors interventions generally consist of three or four missions or sessions of actual training, each lasting from two to three weeks.

      - These sessions are spaced at intervals of six to twelve months

      - One or more control or follow-up missions may be planned afterwards, at intervals of two to three years.

      What kind of training does Acupuncture Ambassadors provide?
      - A grounding in acupuncture theory and practice is given to care-givers within the medical premises, usually a hospital, dispensary or clinic.

      - Necessary training supplies (books, photocopies, acupuncture charts) as well as acupuncture supplies (needles, moxa) are provided to the interns upon their first work assignment. A continuing supply program is developed to help send needed acupuncture supplies ongoing to the mission sites.

      Who provides the training proposed by Acupuncture Ambassadors?
      - During each intervention, training is provided throughout the sessions by volunteer acupuncture practitioners, all experienced in the teaching of Traditional Asian medicine theory. All our volunteer practitioner / teachers diplomats will take a future role in the mentoring of their students with correspondence via letter and or/email.

      What is the training program developed by Acupuncture Ambassadors?
      - The program, which combines theory and practice, covers from the very first session the entire basis of the discipline with regard to acupuncture energies, their pathways, and the locations of the points as well as physio-pathology, diagnostics and energy-based healing, also including techniques for manipulating needles and moxa.
      - By the third week of this apprenticeship, the interns have a practical command of the therapeutic procedures for at least ten of the most common illnesses in their countries: dysentery, rheumatism, acid stomach and stomach ulcers, hypertension, etc.
      - Upon completion of this apprenticeship, the interns receive a Certificate of Participation in International Acupuncture Ambassadors Training.


Humanitarian aid: An Acupuncture Ambassadors view.

What is Humanitarian aid? An immense question, which no response can really define, as it is an action as complex as humanity itself. It can be said that it is a theater where all human interests meet, from the most selfish to the most altruistic: interest in others' welfare and their evolution, but also political and financial interests.

Nevertheless, those in the Third World continue to die, of hunger and disease.

We have certainly exported some spectacular techniques for survival. Life at all costs, or even at any cost, is this not the model of Western society? Yet this same society frequently fails to provide the means towards a decent quality of life for those whose existence it prolongs.

In fact, what awaits the “happy beneficiaries” of “humanitarian aid”? Doubtless it is best to cite one of them, an old African sage: “If you want to kill the proudest of men, give him every day just what he needs to eat. With patience you will make of him a helpless serf. What is most shaming for a people is to wait for another people to feed and clothe them, to the point of forgetting the language of their ancestors, of free men, until they can no longer say, 'It's not our fault.”

Perhaps it is time to stop making beggars of these men, women and children. Perhaps the moment has come for a genuine sharing between rich and developing nations, so as to enrich each with the experience of the others while preserving freedom for all.

A Chinese proverb, often cited but too often forgotten, reminds us: “Better far to teach a hungry man to fish than to give him a fish already caught.” Shouldn't all humanitarian aid take inspiration from this proverb, offering straightforward training and inexpensive practices suited to the needs of disadvantaged people, thereby contributing to their self-reliance?

On our proposed missions licensed volunteer acupuncturists provide care but also and most importantly transmit their techniques, thereby training more self-reliant medical assistants, since acupuncture with its curative and preventive qualities permits significant savings in drugs and medical procedures. Moreover, this training contributes to a respect for human dignity by avoiding too strong a dependency on the wealthier nations.

In this regard we at Acupuncture Ambassadors would like to cite the intentions, good works and right outcomes of a European organization with similar goals as ours.  At the end of a first mission to Haiti conducted by the French/Swiss organization Acupuncture Without Borders, in February of 1996, a mission in which ten Haitian nurse-nuns participated, the president of “Aid Haiti” wrote the following:
    
 “Very quickly, the Little Sisters of Saint Thérèse and I myself understood how privileged we were to learn the rudiments of this 'alternative' medicine, which permits us to care for and even heal many diseases without the misery of medicine costs, which in Haiti plagues the sick and many care-givers as well. Your students got started right away dispensing care. Their manner of presenting this new medical approach to the population depended upon their individual personalities, but was always convincing…

      “The Haitian peasants accepted acupuncture care with ease and confidence, a confidence which became complete after they saw the positive results it provided. They even seemed to understand the workings of the 'little needles' better than those of imported medicines. Most of the sisters were flooded with requests for care, and some of them deplored the lack of time that prevented them from responding immediately and affirmatively to all the patients who wanted acupuncture treatment…

      “The expenses for pharmaceutical products dropped significantly in the dispensaries that participated in this program. This drop occurred most of all in medicines for hypertension, acid stomach and rheumatism, three illnesses widespread in Haiti…

      “All your students eagerly await your next mission. They all plan to be present, current events in Haiti permitting, so as to ensure the best possible outcome.”

Three more missions took place, in February of 1997,1998, and 2000, each as exhilarating as the first, completely confirming the hopes contained in this endeavor. One participant concluded the three sessions with a telling comment: “This is aid for the littlest and the poorest, since the patients get better without medicine.” To this comment, it must be added that the dispensaries run by the nurse-participants provide for a population of about four hundred thousand, living well below the poverty line.

We at Acupuncture Ambassadors will follow in the same footsteps as the Acupuncture Without Borders organization with our concern for health first and foremost.

Acupuncture Ambassadors (AA) International Charter

Article 1
AA is an organization completely independent of all political, religious or philosophical ties, which works in the interests of human rights.

Article 2
Action by AA is engaged by request of the concerned country, and is grounded in deep respect for local culture and practices, which alone can guarantee true change and genuine interchange on an equal basis.

Article 3
AA aims to improve the self-reliance of health care facilities in developing nations, by offering free of charge a foundation course in acupuncture as well as the corresponding supplies, with follow-up and evaluation of the action undertaken.