A school to train interested students on Natural Medicine has been created in Cameroon. The Garden of Eden Naturopathic Institute of West Africa is already operational in Bamenda and carries programmes in Higher National Diploma, HND, Undergraduate and Postgraduate Diplomas offering courses in musical therapy, African traditional medicine and holistic helper.
This revelation was made at a press conference marking the international day of African Traditional Medicine, set aside by the World Health Organisation, WHO, every August 31. The event, which took place in Bamenda for its first time, was commemorated under the theme, ‘collaboration between conventional health practitioners and traditional health practitioners’ at the conference room of Blue Pearl Hotel Bamenda.
The celebration was organised by Dr. Fru Richard, Garden of Eden Naturopathic Institute of West Africa. Dr. Fru explained the importance of the theme; “The essence of this theme is that, if conventional health practitioners cannot handle a case, it should be sent to traditional health practitioners.
It is important to know that more than 80 percent of persons living in rural communities rely on natural medicine for their health problems”. The day, as stated by the organizer, was introduced by WHO and traditional health practitioners to educate citizens to know the value of health care. To pass out information to enlighten the society and to caution those who have been brainwashed with wrong ideas concerning natural medicine.
According to Dr. Fru, the day is set aside to change the mentality of people concerning traditional medicine and to give light to it. “It is not the presence of bacteria and viruses in your body that is the problem. It is the ability of your body to handle these bacteria and viruses that is the problem”, he averred.
Dr. Fru claimed that some traditional doctors are God-sent and that traditional medicine is not bad as some people say. He quoted some scriptures in the Bible like Genesis 1:29, Revelation 22:12 and Ezekiel 47:12. He also made references to a naturopathic doctor, the acclaim father of natural medicine, the hypocrite who said, “Let thy food by thy medicine and thy medicine by thy food”.
He made it clear that natural medicine has a lot to do as far as primary health care is concern, and not only secondary. He added that, those who condemn nature, nature takes care of them and revealed that there is a directorate of traditional or natural medicine in Cameroon.
The African traditional medicine day celebration started in 2003 and came after a series of meetings between WHO officials and some African leaders.
