Beyond Western Medicine: Traditional and Alternative Care in Africa and Canada. AMREF works with traditional healers in South Africa to improve health, with a focus on HIV/AIDS and TB.

1. BEYOND WESTERN MEDICINE
Traditional and Alternative Care in Africa &
Canada
presented by
AMREF’S Coffeehouse Speakers Series on
global development
featuring
Dr. Heather Boon,
Katie Smith and
Jette James of AMREF Canada’s Board of
Directors

2. Quotable
“Medicine has long decried acupuncture, homeopathy, and the
like as dangerous nonsense that preys on the gullible. Again
and again, carefully controlled studies have shown alternative
medicine to work no better than a placebo. But now many
doctors admit that alternative medicine often seems to do a
better job of making patients well, and at a much lower cost,
than mainstream care—and they’re trying to learn from it. ”
-David H. Freedman
The Atlantic, “The Triumph of New-Age Medicine”, July 2011
Source: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/07/the-triumph-of-new-age-medicine/308554/

3. Did you know?
“In some Asian and African countries, 80% of
the population depend on traditional medicine
for primary health care.”
Source: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs134/en/

4. Stand of a traditional healer in an open market in Accra, capital of Ghana – Pgallert, Wikimedia Commons

5. Did you know?
In South Africa the most commonly trusted
traditional healers are Diviners.
“…diviners or spirit mediums combine the role of herbalist
with the role of psychotherapist, community historian, priest,
council and judge and they are believed to have a closer
relationship or to be in constant communication with the
ancestral spirits.”
Source: “Perceptions of Traditional Healers in collaborating with biomedical health workers in HIV/TB Program” by Boniface Hlabano

6. Did you know?
Source: torontoibogainecentre.ca
Traditional medicines used by Bwiti practitioners in West
Africa have been adopted in Canada to help treat
addiction to hard drugs such as heroine. Specifically, the
psychoactive compound Ibogaine—a hallucinogenic
derived from the root of the Tabernanthe iboga plant—
has been found to be highly effective. Toronto is home to
Ontario’s first Ibogaine facility.

7. Source: http://www.foundhealth.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/fsnr9.jpg

8. Quotable
Source: http://www.scidev.net/en/science-and-innovation-policy/entrepreneurship/news/software-apps-for-african-farmers-win-
prizes.html
“Ayahuasca shows you very clearly the psychological
baggage that you’ve carried all your life…and if you see this
baggage, then you can put it down...”
- Dr. Gabor Maté
Dr. Maté has worked as an addictions doctor in Vancouver’s Downtown
East Side for over a decade, combining the use of Western medicine with
traditional medicine, including the use of the hallucinogen Ayahuasca,
which is found in the Peruvian Amazon

9. Did you know?
South Africa’s National Drug Policy incorporates
traditional medicine use into the country’s health
sector—made official in the 2007 Traditional
Healers Act—encouraging traditional healers and
mainstream health professionals to cooperate and
work together.
Source: “Perceptions of Traditional Healers in collaborating with biomedical health workers in HIV/TB Program” by Boniface Hlabano

10. A traditional healer of the Shona people of Zimbabwe – Hans Hillewaert

11. From 2002 to 2013, the Canadian International
Development Agency has operated a “Strengthening
Traditional Health Systems” project, supporting the
work of the World Health Organization’s Regional
Office for Africa (AFRO). Part of the project explores
how traditional medicine could be used to address
malaria in sub-Saharan Africa.
Did you know?
Source: http://www.acdi-cida.gc.ca/CIDAWEB/cpo.nsf/vWebProjByNumEn/C883B004E273DA648525710F0036FCE7

12. Did you know?
The open access African Journal of Traditional,
Complementary and Alternative medicines was founded
in 2004, and is dedicated to publishing “exciting research
in all areas of applied medical plants, Traditional
medicines, Complementary Alternative Medicines, food
and agricultural technologies, and promotion of healthy
use of medicinal products.”
Source: http://journals.sfu.ca/africanem/index.php/ajtcam/index