Cases

I would like to give you an idea of the effects of our homeopathic treatment on the Lebanese refugees. The following cases are all from the Aramoun Governmental Mixed School which houses about 250 people.

We didn’t take pictures of all the patients but they or their parents agreed to share with us and whoever is interested their health conditions. Sometimes their complaints directly related to their condition of refugees, traumatized by the fear they experienced because of the bombs and by so many sudden changes in their lives. Then there is the bleak prospects for the future, which for many means having to start from zero even when the hostilities stop, because their homes or businesses have been destroyed.


1– Ahmad Shihab : 34 years

He was suffering from a chronic inflammation in the middle ear which affected the nerves of the right side of his face. He didn’t have any sensation there and also couldn’t hear. After tow days of treatment he was amazed to notice a big improvement. Now he can feel and hear 50% more than before.

2– Zeinab and Mohammad Shihab : 4 and 1 year they are brother and sister.

They were suffering from Diarrhea, fever and vomiting—these are very common symptoms amongst the children refugees, mostly because of the change of diet, water, and the traumas of the bombings. After tow days of treatment they experienced a complete relief from their complaints.

3– Wafa Hamdan : 27 years

She was suffering from a chronic allergy in the throat for the last five years . After three days of treatment she felt 50% better and with a general feeling of improved energy.

4- Hasan Akeel : 15 years

He came with a strong abdominal ache and a blocked nose. He had a complete relief of the abdominal ache within two days and he can now breathe freely through the nose.

5– Mohammad Al Roumiethy : 9 months

He was suffering from diarrhea and vomiting and was cured after just one dose of the selected homeopathic remedy.

6- Yousif Al Roumiethy : 9 years

Suffering from a tonsils infection he reported to have been relieved after two days of treatment.

7– Maher Hamdan : 20 years

He came with a chronic back pain which he was suffering from for the last 1 year. He told us that he felt a 50% improvement after tow days of taking the homeopathic remedy.

8– Khadija Hamdan : 50 years

She complained of chronic constipation and said that she now feels a notable improvement .

9– Samaher Hamdan : 28 years

He is suffering from a chronic skin problem for the last five years which he had tried to treat with various medications with no success. He reported a notable improvement just after four days of our treatment.

10- Fatima Al Roumiethy : 34 years

She was experiencing difficulty in breathing and expectorating. She said that after two days of taking the homeopathic remedy, she can now breathe normally and has no problems in expectorating.

11- Mohammad Al Roumiethy : 8 years

He came with tonsillitis and vomiting and reported a complete cure after two days of treatment.

12- Houssien Darwish : 3 years

He had a burn on his left hand and the mother showed us how there was no trace of the burn after a week from taking the homeopathic remedy.

13- Fatima Al Roumiethy : 50 years

She complained of pain on the joints and difficulty in breathing. She reported a notable improvement after one week of treatment.

14- Mariam Al Ashab : 24 years

She had an infection in the throat and felt complete relief after three days of treatment.

15- Zeinab Hawi : 27 years

He was down with flu and fever but after three days of our treatment he felt an almost complete relief and a sense of increased energy.

16- Aya Hawi : 9 years

She had an infection on the finger, with purulent discharge. It was cured within a week, but she also used a natural ointment she got from an MD.

17- Ali Hawi : 7 years

He came crying with a wound on a finger, he is now fine and felt immediate relief from the remedy.

18- Hasan hawi : 10 years

He was suffering from an abdominal ache which was relieved within two days with the remedy prescribed.

19- Fadia Al Roumiethy : 34 years

She is breastfeeding but after the fear she experienced in the South, before coming to the safety of Aramoun, she couldn’t produce enough milk for her baby. After three days of treatment she is now back to the normal level and has stopped giving the baby powder milk.

20- Yousif Al Roumiethy : 1 year

He was having diarrhea, vomiting and fever and the mother reported he was quickly fine after just two doses of the remedy.


21- Fatima Al Roumiethy Najat : 27 years

She was having flu and was cured in three days.

22- Hadi Hawi : 1 years

He had diarrhea and fever and was cured after three days.

23- Nasab Ganawi : 21 years

She is breastfeeding but after the ordeal she went through because of the bombing she didn’t produce enough milk for her baby. Within four days of homeopathic treatment she is happily back to normal.

24- Malak Hawi : 18 months

She didn’t have any appetite and refused to eat, but after two days of treatment she is eating well and her mother reported that she is a lot more active and happy.

25- Hussein Al Roumeithy : 4 years

The mother told us that he didn’t want to eat. She noticed a notable improvement within few days of taking the remedies.

26 Fatima Mogniya : 33 years

She was down with flu and experienced a general tiredness. She was back to normal within a week of taking the homeopathic remedy.

27- Joceline Elbi : 10 years
Headache and pain on the left heel . After one week she feels much better .

28- Zeinab : 5 years
Allergy on the face and the body . After one week, complete relief with feeling of activity .

War refugees

Coming to the more recent events that have forcefully placed Lebanon in the spotlight of public opinion, AMURT and AMURTEL volunteers have already started working here serving the internally displaced Lebanese that within days of the beginning of aerial bombardments and artillery shelling have arrived in masse from the South of the country.

On the 20th of July we contacted the government officer in-charge for the refugees, Walid Mlaib whose office is currently based in a large school complex in Kaber Shmoon housing about 450 refugees.

Since we had completed the government registration procedures for our organization Ananda Marga Yoga, which is here a non-for-profit Civil Company, we have all the necessary legal documents and he granted us the permission to offer to the refugees homeopathic medical service directly at the government schools where they have been sheltered.


Patients waiting their turn at a government school that service refugees

We can’t reach the refugees who are staying with relatives and friends, but since they are coming to the schools to register and receive food supplies, they are also benefiting from our service.

For those who couldn't find such a homely shelter, there are government schools which have been opened to them by the local authorities.

Most of our patients suffer from anxiety and related disturbances such as stomach pain, diarrhea, palpitations etc. but we are also taking care of more chronic ailments.

Luckily homeopathic remedies are pretty good in taking care of these problems and we are already getting very good results, with people feeling better by the next day or so from getting the remedies.

A couple of days ago we bought 1400 of the small plastic bottles we use for giving the remedies to our patients, but as for the remedies, we will have to see how to get them from India as given the large number of patients we maybe running out of some important ones.

Of course the refugees need everything, from mattresses to food supplies and hopefully we will get enough support from abroad to provide such essential items to them as well.


War refugees take shelter in the government schools

I spoke with a local volunteer, Raja Mohtar, who is taking care of the refugees registration in one of the schools we visited. He told me that they weren't prepared for such an influx of people. In the area under the Aramoun municipality alone there are more than 350 families of refugees and each one is on average composed of eight people: the parents, at least four to five children and one or two grandparents.

So far they have been getting help from the political parties, such as the Progressive Socialist Party that is headed by Walid Jumlat, the leader of the Druze(this is an area where most of the people belong to the Druze religion). The Democratic Party of Saad Hariri is also helping and of course Hezbollah too.

Coming back to the refugees, Raja told me that they are trying to organize a regular kitchen because so far they have been getting packages of food for families but there isn't any fresh food inside: tuna, canned goods nothing warm and fresh. The problem is that they are afraid of going to Beirut to get gas for the large burners that would be needed to cook fresh meals for 250 people.

Well, they also don't have the money for buying all the gas bottles and refill so I told them that I will request friends around the world to help out so that people could eat properly and avoid getting sick. Another alternative would be using firewood, which here is readily available. We will see tomorrow what can be done.

I guess the future of the refugees here depends on how the hostilities will develop, but even if a ceasefire is declared and accepted by the warring parties I doubt that they will quickly go back home, fear is strong.

At the moment we are active in four schools buildings. Two in Aramoun municipality (which is just 5 kilometres from the now closed Beirut airport), housing 250 and 50 people respectively, and the Bshamoun municipality high school with 300 and finally the Aien Anoub school with 150 people.

We haven't stopped our free clinics in Shatila and Borj Al Barajne, but we have reduced the hours of service there and requested the Palestinian residents to make sure they come during the new opening hours, so that we can maximize our time and reach more people in need of medical care.

That’s all for the moment.

Dada Ganadevananda

Service project in Lebanon

In April 2005 I visited first Lebanon with in mind the idea of starting a service project there. Surely not by chance I and some local yoga students met some Palestinian refugee and came to know more directly of their permanent condition of unwanted guests in Lebanon.

We started taking care of some children of a boyscout center in Borj Al Barajne and gradually we decided to do something long term to improve as much as possible the health condition of the camp residents.

We prepared a detailed project proposal that outlines the project in all its aspects.
Initially we wanted to limit our service to children but being new to the community we were advised by our well-wishers there to invite all residents to see for themselves what our work was about.

The refugee camps are located in economically depressed areas of Beirut which, with their low rents, attract many foreign guest workers from Syria, Sudan, Egypt etc. who somehow came to know about us and are also benefitting from our free homeopathic service.

It took till November 2005 to actually open a clinic in Shatila because of delayes in the renovation of the apartment we rented which is located within the refugee camp. Once we started though the service as been quite regular and within a few months we can count more than 500 patients and over a thousand free consultations and remedies. We also arrange to have regular clinic days in Borj Al Barajne thanks to the hospitality of another youth center.

There are two popular committes that run the administration of the camps, one selected by the political factions and th eother elected by the residents. We enjoy their support and feel very safe even if we have politely declined offers of affiliation with any of the political groups that are present in the camps.


A child gets a homeopathic dose

We were introduced to the community by an informal walk-about in the camp and mostly by getting to know the shop keepers who somehow serve the function of human media channels to the residents.

We also printed some posters and plasered them in strategic locations in the area so that everyone could come to know about our service.

To date we are taking care of more than 600 patients, most of which are children, who usually respond very quickly to our treatment. After a few successful cures, word has gone around that we are good in treating children and so we have become popular with mothers who bring their babies and toddlers at any sign of acute illnesses.

The next step of our work is to train local volunteers so to extend our service work in other economically depressed areas in Lebanon. We plan to start the courses in the coming fall 2006 and eventually replicate the project in Syria as well.