Welcome!

Dear Friends and Patients,

I will be joining Walter Fischer in January to visit for the first time his clinic in Mumbai, India.  Since so many have asked to be kept posted, I have decided to put together a blog so that you may join me on what I hope to be an amazing journey.  18 years ago when I first started acupuncture school I wanted to learn this amazing medicine so that I may travel the world and be able to help those who are in desperate need.  With so little required in equipment, merely needles and my hands what better way to bring help to those on such a global scale.  I came across Dr. Fischer's website and through various emails and skyping I have decided that this is a wonderful opportunity to share and help in any way possible.  Below is a bit of what he had sent me in a file so that you may read about his clinic.






May 2007. Two acupuncturists, Jacques
Beytrison (Switzerland) and Walter Fischer
(Belgium) go to Mumbai. They face the evident
lack of access to healthcare in the
poor areas of the city and decide to use
their skills to provide some solutions.

Acupuncture brings an efficient and
low cost solution to frequent and troublesome
health problems, like chronic and
acute pain, for these populations whose
daily tasks are mainly physical.

January 2008. Walter Fischer decides
to set up a small clinic in a slum of
Bandra east. Ujwala Patil, a young social
worker, joins his efforts and together they
open a first rudimentary acupuncture clinic
(7 square meters, two treatment beds, no
running water).

In response to the positive results, acupuncture
begins to gradually spread its
way across the poor areas of the city.

Few months later Ujwala creates her
own NGO, “Barefoot.Slums” that will be in
charge of running the acupuncture centres
in Mumbai, in association with Walter and
his “ Barefoot Acupuncturists”.

May 2009. Due to the increasing crowd of
incoming patients, the acupuncture clinic
moves to a larger facility offering 5 beds
and, at last, a toilet and running water.

Since its inception, «Barefoot Acupuncturists»

has treated over 1200 patients.

The average rate of 15 patients treated per day

in the previous location has increased to

25 patients per day in the new health center.

While acupuncture can treat many more

disorders, physical pain makes up about 90%

of the cases in our slum clinic.

100% of patients discover and experience acupuncture

for the first time. Women, who deal

with the large majority of heavy domestic tasks,

represent 65% of the patients.

The nominal fee requested of each patient is

20 Indian rupees (0.45 dollars) per treatment.

The actual cost is approximately 10 times this

amount.

A slum, beyond the big difference in social class, is characterized by a set of precarious houses where poverty and associated social problems are concentrated. In Mumbai, slums represent 50% of the population’s living environment, around seven million people.

Most of our patients come from families that struggle on an average of 8,000 rupees
(150 dollars) salary per month, whose members often take on several jobs to be able to make it.
It is not rare to see families of 6 or 8 people occupying less than 25 sq. meters with running water only a few hours a day, and no toilets.

Overcrowded, unhealthy houses, poor sanitary conditions, heavy work demands, daily stress, lack of sleep, etc. can explain the majority of the numerous pathologies encountered in the clinic.
Many slum inhabitants have insufficient access to healthcare; either too expensive, or not adapted to their problems.

The Barefoot Acupuncturists’ health center brings a local solution accessible to all.
THE BAREFOOT ACUPUNCTURISTS PROJECT
©

If you are interested in helping or learning more you can go to his website:
www.barefootacupuncturists.com