AFRICA SPECIAL: An interview with Jeremy Sherr
Due to the current focus of attention on Africa, on account of the Ebola epidemic and its dreaded spreading, CLEVER H. has decided to take a closer look on how homeopathy is helping on the continent.
We therefore, in the current and coming issues, seek to hear of organizations, clinics and projects that are currently, and have previously been underway, treating people gently and holistically with homeopathy in Africa.
In the wake of a potential Ebola pandemic, we must not forget that there are other severe diseases that are being treated with homeopathy, and here therefore we focus on the wonderful practitioners that are devoting their homeopathic practice to aiding patients in their recovery, and the organizations making these projects possible.
The following is an interview with Jeremy Sherr (J.S.) about the ´Homeopathy for Health in Africa´ project, a project supported by the Homeopathy Action Trust (HAT). Emma Colley (E.C.), homeopath and trustee for HAT conducted the interview in June this year.
E.C.: Homeopathy for Health in Africa is one of several fund-raising organizations supported by the Homeopathy Action Trust. HAT works as a charity in the UK, supporting patient choice, funding projects and working to raise the awareness of homeopathy in the public arena for the benefit of patients, practitioners and students.
Having studied with Jeremy Sherr on his Dynamis course, I became involved with fundraising for his project in Tanzania, Homeopathy for Health in Africa. The NGO has worked with people in Tanzania who have HIV and AIDS since 2008 as well as being involved in other projects which Jeremy explains more about here. The interview was with Jeremy at the end of a Dynamis reunion in summer of this year (27/06/14).
E. C.: It was great to see you at Meeting Point in June this year. Do you have any thoughts following the conference?
J.S.: It was excellent to meet so many old friends and to learn from great homoeopaths. It has been a long time since there was a big a conference in England, as the Society of Homeopaths used to have 10-15 years ago. The atmosphere was wonderful; there was a lot to be learned. Let’s hope the big conferences come back in all their glory.
E.C.: Hopefully most people by now have seen the recent films (www.homeopathyactiontrust.org/five-years-in-africa and http://www.homeopathyactiontrust.org/marys-story) that have been funded by Homeopathy Action Trust – in a few sentences can you add to what are the most incredible things you see everyday working with homeopathy in Africa?
J.S.: The most incredible thing is the results that can be achieved with classical homoeopathy. We all see great results in our first world practices but for some reason it seems the results in Africa are beyond these. The percentage and intensity of success is much better than we ever imagined possible. The other gratifying thing is how eager African people are for alternatives approaches, and the great demand for clinics. They really love homoeopathy!
E.C.: How is the project progressing?
J.S.: In the last year the project is progressing very well. We’ve been in Tanzania for 5 years now. The first 4 years have been spent creating the foundations and getting everything in place. Now that the foundations are solid things are moving forward exponentially. We’ve moved into the next phase in terms of number of clinics, the quantity and quality of education, media and research. It has been a long, hard struggle as everything takes longer in Africa. Of course we have made a lot of mistakes and therefore have learnt a lot. It has all been very satisfying and more than worthwhile. Homoeopathy is spreading far and wide, it is the right medicine for Africa and the right thing to do. Our only obstacles now are personnel and funding.
We don’t see Homoeopathy for Health in Africa as our project; we see it as everyone’s project. It is largely thanks to the amazing support from homoeopaths around the world that we have got this far. So many friends are doing their best to help, from people raising funds, making films, volunteers; they’re all part of HHA. It takes a large group of people to heal a large disease, so it is wonderful to see what I call a posidemic (a positive epidemic) can achieve.
E.C.: What have you achieved in the past year?
J.S.: Hospital work is very gratifying, we love working alongside doctors in a cooperative and mutually supportive way.
We’ve written our ‘Homoeopathy for Africa course’ which is now distributed for free in nine African countries as well as Haiti, Philippines and Bolivia. We have held several courses in the last year – we’re really pushing out with the education. We have run three courses in Malawi, two in Uganda, one longer term course in Tanzania and are sponsoring students for full time education in Kenya. Education is a very important part of our mission.
Two further goals that we are working towards are research and media. It was wonderful that Homeopathy Action Trust sent Amanda Rubin-Lewis out to make two short movies about the project. We were also able to make our video newsletter with the help of volunteers. We are currently editing many short video cases to share with the wider homoeopathic community.
E.C.: What can anyone do to help?
J.S.: There are two main things we need, raising awareness and raising funds. We want the world to see what homoeopathy can achieve. And we need funds to keep going. At the moment the project is about 70% funded by contributions and the rest is from our personal funds.
It does cost money to run clinics and education projects, research and data collection, media, remedies, food parcels etc, and we appreciate any help we can get with this. The new fundraising calendars will be available by September, along with the gift cards (similar to Oxfam Unwrapped) which went down really well last Christmas and we have some other new surprises in store too. Keep an eye on www.homeopathyforhealthinafrica.org/simply-giving/.
Lastly just to say a huge thank you to everyone who’s helping us – we appreciate all of your support.
About the author:
Emma Colley [RSHom, PCH, CEASE Therapist, BSc(Hons)] has always had a keen interest in holistic health and found her way into homeopathy study back in 2003. Since then she’s been passionately studying, working, writing and sharing her love for homeopathy. She’s studied with Jeremy Sherr on his most recent Dynamis course and supports the Homeopathy for Health in Africa project by fundraising and as an Ambassador for the NGO as well as working with Homeopathy Action Trust as a Trustee of the charity. Her adventures in social media for the positive promotion of homeopathy led to the launch of #homeopathyhour on twitter where she hangs out on a Monday evening from 8-9pm.
http://www.emmacolley.co.uk/
How to participate on twitter #homeopathyhour : http://www.emmacolley.co.uk/blog/one-step-at-a-time-homeopathyhour-how-it-works
Clever H. - the Mag! 
why did you chose zincum instead of lycopodium
Posted by Marie Chevrier | 14/12/2014, 2:27 PMHi Marie,
Jeremy always repertorises his cases and works with this (as well of course as his extensive knowledge). To my awareness the Zinc was particularly well indicated with her restless state and also fitted other symptoms that the lady was experiencing. I hope that’s a little helpful (obviously from a distance as I’ve not been able to check this with Jeremy).
With best wishes,
Em
Posted by Em Colley | 14/12/2014, 9:27 PM