Allachy project: First aid herbs tool kit for the Rwenzori region, Uganda
Artemisia annua L © Rudy Lemmens
Project area / background
The Rwenzori Region in western Uganda has a long history of civil wars, rebel incursions, displaced people and insecurity and only recently (2001/2002) most of the families went back to their destroyed homesteads and found a disorganised community where, among others, knowledgeable and trusted healers and herbalists had disappeared. The mountain landscape of the Rwenzori area, where road infrastructure is poor and population density high, means that many people have to walk long distances before reaching health units and get medical care if they can afford it (daily income > $1 a day).
A local training NGO network (SATNET) was asked by his members to do something about the use of traditional medicinal plants and prepare a simple and practical handbook for trainers to use in their communities. The idea of a first aid kit consisting of medicinal plants was born. More than 50 healers and herbalists were consulted on the most common plants and most common diseases/ailments cured by those plants, the result of this consultation is a compiled handbook by Monik Adriaens - Family Medicinal Plant Gardens in the Rwenzori Region.
Experience show that trainers need more adapted training material, illustrated with examples, figures, photographs and translated into the local languages, it is even better to have a reconstructed homestead where all plants are introduced and can be used for training purposes.
See 'Interim project report', September 2007
Project description
The project consists of two important panels; establish a demonstration homestead copying the actual living environment of the farmers and their families; and introduce in the plantations, around the house the described herbs and trees of the "Family Medicinal Plant Gardens in the Rwenzori Region", and provide training material to trainers in local language adapted to the farmers' understanding of the described disease/ailments and their treatments by those medicinal herbs and trees.
Erythrina abyssinica Lam. ©Rudy Lemmens
The reconstructed homestead shall be implanted in the Tooro Botanical Gardens, an upcoming conservation and demonstration site of the Albertine Rift plants, linked to training, education and awareness programmes on friendly environmental sustainable use of the plants. Farmers can also procure indigenous and medicinal plants to reforest and/or to plant in the compounds.
The demonstration homestead shall serve as a training facility, not only the medicinal use of the herbals shall be highlighted but also organic farming techniques, soil conservation techniques, and new varieties of traditional crops shall be on display. The "home of the farmer", built in local material, shall be, at the same time, a training hut equipped with a black board and posters showing the plants, their use, sustainable harvesting, preparation methods and methods of conservation.
Skilled TBG personnel, treating people with herbs for more than 20 years, shall execute the training and practical, all the plants shall be available in the gardens around the hut for easy recognition, identified in different local languages and botanical names to show the exact use and dosage to treat the ailment. The schme is not meant to heal complicated diseases, but the daily "bobo's" which if are left untreated can cause later problems, especially for people far from any health centre or health drug store.
Self reliance linked with basic knowledge can save many lives especially children. Take malaria as a small example, if not quickly treated, in this region, it ends up with a burial. The presence of Artemisia annua plants in the garden can be helpful to cure the disease in a quick and efficient manner just by simple drinking the herbal tea. You can even mix this tea with other anti malarial herbals to produce a combined herbal therapy (CHT) which increase the efficiency and decrease the hypothetical risk of plasmodium resistance against artemsinin.
When the plants are cultivated in the garden you don't have to search for them in the wild. You start a collection of basic plants, not more than 30 for the moment, a mix of trees, shrubs and plants you include them between your banana, coffee, cassava and other food crops so when needed you find them easily, the quantity you need, at the same time you are not destroying plants in the wild and protecting your environment.
The Uganda coral tree (Erytrhina abyssinca) is living witness of this kind of practices, almost extinct in the Rwenzori region because of its traditional medical value, this tree can be planted in the fence as one of the 30 candidates.
An important aspect of this project is that the knowledge gathered trough the whole Rwenzori region, knowledge given free by more than 50 healers and herbalists,to be distributed in the local communities. This knowledge should be communicated to communities by trainers who are working in the local communities and by documentation translated into the local language.
Project results / outcome
A fully-fledged reconstructed homestead supplemented with 30 plants, mostly shrubs trees and annuals, identified as first aid herbals. The "farmers house" is transformed into a trainer's hut, and training is provided to trainers of trainers. The trainers of trainers are provided with adopted training material to spread the local wisdom to the Rwenzori Mountains communities.