From the Worldwide Faith News archives www.wfn.org
African Churches Change Attitude
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owner-umethnews@ecunet.org
Date
15 Nov 1996 17:21:39
"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3290 notes).
Note 3288 by UMNS on Nov. 14, 1996 at 16:00 Eastern (4099 characters).
SEARCH: Africa, churches, traditional, medicine
Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.
CONTACT: Linda Bloom 574(10-31-32-71B){3288}
New York (212)870-3803 Nov. 14, 1996
EDITORS NOTE: This article is the second of a three-part series on
church support of traditional medicine.
African churches changing attitude
about use of traditional medicine
A UMNS News Feature
by Paul Jeffrey*
CHICHICASTENANGO, Guatemala (UMNS) -- Churches in Africa are
changing their attitude toward traditional medicine and Babara
Turay thinks it's about time.
"The church has been a big obstacle to traditional medicine
for a long time," said Turay, a professor of medicinal botany at
the University of Sierra Leone's College of Medicine in Freetown.
"The church said it was demonic, a form of fetishism. I'm so happy
that the church is changing its attitude. That will have a big
impact, because people trust the church."
Turay was one of 65 participants in a Nov. 4-9 conference on
community-based health care here sponsored by the United Methodist
Board of Global Ministries and Latin American Council of
Evangelical Methodist Churches (CIEMAL).
Another participant from Sierra Leone was Beatrice Gbanga, a
nurse who coordinates primary health care for the United Methodist
Church in that West African country. She said traditional medicine
can help resolve a health crisis that the church played a role in
creating.
"When the missionaries came to our countries, they started
giving out free medicine that the people liked and grew accustomed
to receiving," she explained. "But when the missionaries left,
nothing was free any longer."
Gbanga said economic realities have forced the church to
rethink how it provides health services to people.
"Most of our health work has been focused on curative
medicine," she told United Methodist News Service, "yet the global
recession is making medicine more expensive and quality care more
difficult to practice."
The United Methodist Church in Sierra Leone, which has 10
health centers scattered throughout the countryside, has made a
commitment to shift from curative medicine to primary health care,
which she defined as "training people to be self-reliant within
their own environment." Because of recent civil war in Sierra
Leone, "environment" includes camps for displaced people.
Gbanga tries to educate people about traditional medicine,
including the use of herbs for treating illnesses. "Our approach
isn't to throw out Western medicine, but rather to offer people
alternatives, and with time they'll make their own choices,
choosing what's best for them."
She said her participation in the conference has reaffirmed
that teaching. "To see these indigenous women here in Guatemala
talk about their plants -- many of which are similar to plants we
have in Africa -- and what they can do with them, encourages me to
keep on with the work," she added.
Turay believes that traditional medicine "should no longer be
considered something out of the past, but rather our hope for the
future."
He said the use of herbal medicines and other traditional
therapies not only will provide better health for the poor, but
also will save scarce hard currency currently spent on important
medicines.
Countries such as Sierra Leone also will have opportunity to
generate foreign currency with the careful harvesting and selling
of botanic medicinal resources, Turay added.
A Muslim, Turay said his invitation to Guatemala bodes well
for future cooperation. "By joining hands with the church, we can
do so much more," he explained. "We can produce materials, train
workers, help build good health from the grassroots up."
# # #
* Jeffrey is a journalist and United Methodist missionary
based in Central America.
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