By Alejandra Rosado | CEO
“I try to recognize that I am a bridge. I don't heal anyone! I return the dignity to people so that people know if they want to heal or not. Because many times it is a life decision, there are recurrent illnesses that come into your life, as ailments that have to do with emotional issues unresolved and that you have to internalize. And we also have to look at the vulnerabilities with which I live in this world on this planet. We need -the others- to make community networks.” told us Silvia, a traditional healing partner who is accompanying us in our training as community health guides.
We are 18 women training for rescuing the importance of traditional medicine. Little by little, we are creating networks to guarantee our right to decent health.
We have learned from different professionals, traditional healers and we are continuously looking for new moments of sharing ancestral knowledge within our zapotec communities. As part of our training we have made walks in our territory to identify and recollect local medicinal plants, we built a communal medicinal garden, and last month we started to organize a community apothecary. Together we create our first herbarium and we dream of publishing a book that assembles the importance of ancestral knowledge and the richness of our territory.
We believe that we have the capacity to heal ourselves. This knowledge was reaffirmed by Nina, a traditional healer. “So… if the person comes open from his heart, I can transmit to people the knowledge [to heal], they just need to remember it. My work is to restore those memories, remind them that they have the ability to heal, we all have it.”
During the lessons, we have shared experiences about nutrition, local food, medicinal plants, herbalism, physiotherapy, self-massages, and also we are trying to deepen the relationship between emotions and health.
Thank you for pushing a new way of organization between women. We are sure that all the learnings we are gathering will give us a new chance to improve our livelihoods.
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