Naturopaths Without Borders

Winter 2011

Naturopaths Without Borders & MamaBaby Haiti Join Forces

After the catastrophic earthquake that shook Haiti on January 12, 2010 a group of midwives traveled to offer help to the many women affected. The need was great and it was clear that a bigger and long term presence was needed. A few dedicated and hardworking people, including Midwife Patricia Couch, Midwife Jennifer Gallardo, Midwife Desiree LeFave, and Fernando Gallardo, began the enormous process of establishing a permanent birth center in Haiti. The organization: A 501c3 nonprofit named MamaBaby Haiti. The mission: to lower the maternal, fetal, and neonatal mortality rate. The task: huge.

In the summer of 2010 , Dr. Sarah Hesler and Dr. Sean Hesler, who were extremely active and integral in NWB, graduated from Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine. Through NWB and Onyria Tschudy, a midwife and naturopathic medical student at SCNM, these Arizona based doctors and the Oregon based MamaBaby Haiti were connected. This connection has extended the reach of NWB and provides care to the many towns around the Carrefour Morne Rouge, Haiti birth center. The combination of Midwifery and Naturopathy provide a great scope of care for the 75,000 people in these surrounding areas.

After dealing with the difficulties involved with raising money, buying supplies, getting those supplies through customs, and setting up the birth center things seem to be up and running. The number of expectant mothers at the bi-weekly prenatal days are steadily increasing and many visits are being made to the surrounding communities. The birth center is becoming more and more integrated into the community and are learning everyday additional information about what their needs are and how to address them.

-Written by Calley Asbill 

What is Naturopaths Without Borders?

Naturopaths Without Borders is a non-profit, student led group of Naturopathic medical students and volunteers who see the need for holistic care in underserved areas, and work toward this goal with a mission to establish Naturopathic Medicine in the global health community while securing health care as a human right.

NWB operates under the following principles:
1. Health care is a human right for all, not a privilege for the few.
2. Everyone deserves the best health care, regardless of finances.
3. Naturopathic Medicine is well-suited for resource-poor settings.

Licensed naturopathic physicians (N.D.) attend a four-year graduate-level naturopathic medical school and pass rigorous board exams. They are educated in all of the same basic sciences as a M.D. or D.O., but in addition study alternative approaches to therapies, and work under the guiding naturopathic principles which include treating the whole person, as well as treating the cause of the illness and not just the symptoms. NWB works to provide this kind of care globally by sending students and volunteers on medical missions to underserved areas, as well as providing foreign language and cultural training to its students and volunteers. By offering the fundamentals for good health to these areas with nutrition, and less invasive yet still effective therapies such as botanical medicine, homeopathy, acupuncture, physical manipulation and counseling, naturopathic medicine is an ideal fit for communities with little resources, and gives
these people the health they otherwise cannot afford.

NWB has worked with many volunteers locally at the Hamilton Elementary School in Phoenix, as well as the South East Facility Juvenile Detention Center in Mesa, Arizona. Globally, NWB and its volunteers have worked together to support Nuevo Nacimiento, Manos de Ayuda, Mar de Jade, the Guatemala Acupuncture Project, as well as MamaBaby Haiti, and they could always use more help! Donations of quality supplements, botanicals, and medical supplies as well as participation in NWB fundraisers and missions are not only greatly appreciated, but also greatly needed. To contact NWB, please visit http://www.ndwb.org/.

“Healing disadvantaged people around the world with holistic, natural, prevention and treatment...”

-Written by Teresa True

NWB Welcomes Bastyr Chapter to the family!

In the fall of 2010 a Naturopaths Without Borders chapter at Bastyr University in Seattle, WA was established to help spread Naturopathic global and public health. Stephanie Culver and McKenzie Kohlhardt co-founded the chapter in an attempt to give the students at Bastyr a way to gain experience and contacts in not only local public health but internationally as well. The Bastyr chapter has already shown great drive and ambition towards the goals of NWB.

Locally, they have formed a relationship with Alternative Healthcare Access Campaign (AHAC) in Seattle, which serves low-income and homeless patients. Globally, they have fundraised and organized a series of trips in 2011 to volunteer at the MamaBaby Haiti / NWB birth center near Cap Haitian, Haiti. In addition to Haiti, plans are in the works to set up a week long clinic in Puerto Penasco, MX where the NWB volunteers from both SCNM and Bastyr can join forces to assist the underserved. The hard work, initiative, and compassion shown by this group has proven to be a great asset to NWB and public health in general.

-Written by Calley Asbill

Naturopaths Without Borders

www.ndwb.org 
President: Jaclyn Bain
Vice President: Jacob Wolf
Secretary: Tiffany Walker
Chair of Marketing / Public Relations: Calley Asbill
Treasurer/Chair of Donations: Ashley Russell
Chair of Membership & Merchandise: Kara Michalsen
Chair of Trips: Lisa Kearney & Ana Jones

Bastyr Chapter
Co-President: Stephanie Culver
Co-President: McKenzie Kohlhurt