Artemesia Seminar

A few weeks ago, an Austrian missionary friend of ours taught a seminar in our garage on the uses of Artemesia. What is Artemesia, you ask? Well, it is a plant from Asia that has been used there for hundreds (thousands?) of years in the treatment of malaria. A group called Anamed (Action for Natural Medicine) has been promoting its use in Africa as a natural treatment. They do this not because they believe herbal is always better (though sometimes it is) but because in many parts of Africa, people either do not have access to medications, or do not have the money to purchase them. The use of the plant has had a great deal of success in treating malaria, especially in rural areas where it is hard to get or afford medications.

Artemesia is not easy to grow here in Africa, where it is not native. It takes careful cultivation and a lot of attention, and our guard (also who does the gardening) has struggled to get things going in our yard. However, he has had more success that most, and currently we have a small bit of production going on. You remove the leaves of the plant, dry them, then put a teaspoonful into a cup of boiling water to make a particularly nasty-tasting tea. This can be drunk daily to prevent malaria, and Kevin and I have been using this (sporadically) over the last year. Recently we've started using it for the kids, by crushing up the dried leaves and mixing it with chocolate sauce! For us, this is a good prophylaxis (to prevent malaria). However, for local people it is used mainly as a treatment, again by making a tea and drinking it over a course of 10 days.

Sigi, our Austrian friend, led a great seminar and about 22 people attended. Missionaries and local people all showed a lot of interest and purchased dried leaves and creams (it can also be used to treat various skin conditions) and carted away informational books and posters. Whether or not people will pursue its use remains to be seen. People here have to be really convinced that something like this can change their lives in order to use it regularly. We hear that those Mozambicans who drink it weekly see a great decrease in the amount of malaria they have (people here have it regularly), as well as a decrease in other sicknesses. The bitter taste, however, is a real deterrent! We hope that this seminar will really make a difference in people's lives and are so thankful to Sigi (who was not feeling well) for really making a big effort to put on such a great seminar. - Cami