Zuri Medicine's Summer Happenings!

Summer happenings!!

This summer was not only hot outside but things were heating up for Zuri Medicine as well. Coming home after nine months working in Africa, I was looking forward to down time. Lazing around, spending time with family, hanging out and catching up with friends, but instead I felt like I hit the ground running as soon as I got here. There were things to do that I knew I wasn’t going to be able to do once I got back.

Great news!! We have collaborated with an organization and we can now offer you a tax deduction on your donations! The Bertha Mae Williams Foundation Inc. has stepped up to the plate for us so we can accept donations while filing for our own 501(C ) 3 status thus giving donors a TAX WRITEOFF. Now your generous donations to help the projects that are in place continue and start-up of new ones are TAX DEDUCTABLE! A win/win for us.
You can send your tax deductible checks to:
Bertha Mae Williams Foundation Inc.
3811 Ave H
Brooklyn N. Y. 11210
Or you can send a donation through PAYPAL: bmwfoundation@yahoo.com
Don’t forget to add Zuri Medicine in the memo line so it can be directed accordingly.

Our next order of business was to find a mentor at the Small Business Association to help with the business plan. Moving all thoughts from my head to paper was NOT an easy task, but it had to be done. (Why do things sound good in your head till they get to paper?) Dennis proved the right person for the job. He was able to draw these ideas out and make sure they were on paper in a cohesive way. He was awesome and his daughters experience working in rural Rwanda in the medical field gave him invaluable information and insight on how we needed to structure our plan. So Zuri Medicine now has a business plan, on paper!

We have hired a grant writer!! After many months of looking we found Staci Smith. Stacie has been to Tanzania as a volunteer so I felt she knew firsthand the work of healing we were doing. This was the clincher in her proposal that made me know she was right for our mission; “ I have conducted several projects in East Africa and just returned from a remote project in Tanzania near Lake Tanganyika in the Kigoma region, so I understand well the challenges with medicine and clean water.” Staci has jumped in with both feet and has been researching our most likely sources of funding. In order for us to move forward in our vision of helping communities to heal with homeopathy we have to be funded!
One of Zuri’s vision in the near future is to expand, adding two full time employees one to oversee our full operation and the other to be the boots on the ground popping in to oversee the clinics, for this we need funding.

Treating kids for ringwrom/scabies of the head in D.R. Congo

We have been invited back to rural Uganda to teach in September. (Starting to notice our theme of “rural”?) People there are anxious to continue their homeopathic education. The first half of our course was good but it left people hungering for more, so we will go in-depth on topics that matters most in Africa; malaria, HIV care, and childhood diseases. We teach for only two (2) weeks at a time so we pack a punch into our courses and leave them wanting more. KAPOW! Here is an excerpt of an email from one of the students who did the first two weeks of the course in February taught in conjunction with Homeopathy for Heath in Africa. “I therefore would like to go for further homeopathic study to expand more knowledges. I like homeopathy very much. I also thank MICHELLE for teaching well, she is talented friendly teacher.”

And finally Congo awaits, our most needy and heartrending clinic. There we start work at 7 am and finish when the last rays of the sun dips behind the horizon. We have an endless stream of people all day long. We have recently opened up communications with the local hospital to train staff, adding homeopathy to their repertoire of services provided to their patients. The goal is to bring an understanding of homeopathy to the staff while setting up a referral service so people suffering from acute ailments can be sent to our homeopathic clinic, already in place. This will help the already overcrowded hospital, (1 doctor to 22,868 patients), to better serve the needs of its community.

Although there was a lot of talk of going to South Sudan to train community leaders in homeopathy, sadly because of the state of unrest, we have had to put those plans on hold. Zuri Medicine hopes to be able to reopen negotiations at a later date when things settle down. It’s unfortunate as many people are suffering without access to ANY health care.

We have been offered a pharmacy by the late Dr. Mital’s wife, Shamaji. She learned of Zuri Medicines work in Africa through Yashasvi Jhangiani . As remedies are hard to come by for our lay homeopaths in rural Africa, having a kit to hand to them at the end of training with the remedies they have studied, is an invaluable tool. It’s the difference between going out and helping members of their communities, (on acute care of course), and being stuck with knowledge they can’t put to good use. We are asking for sponsorship to buy bullet cases to use as pouches to hold the remedies. Well done Yashasvi Jhangiani for helping us put Dr. Mital’s pharmacy to good use.

And finally a big thank you to Sheree LaNora who got tired of hearing about all Zuri Medicines adventures but only seeing it in photos, she has donated a VIDEO CAMERA to us. YEA SHEREE!!! As soon as I learn how to use it there will be videos of the work being done.

Our summer has been fun, but also a lot of work taking place behind the scenes. Zuri Medicine can’t thank all those who are helping to move us along enough. As I start to pack my bags for another long stay in Africa I am overwhelmed by the work ahead of me but pleased with the work done over the summer to ensure we build a solid foundation on which to move forward. We are grateful to all our friends and supporters as your kind words and donations help us to achieve unimaginable goals in rural communities that are medically underserved.
Please consider making a donation to our PAYPAL to help us continue projects already started while implementing new one.
Thank you,
Michelle