Acupuncture Without Borders Switzerland
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The Goals of Acupuncture Without Borders
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The Goals of Acupuncture Without Borders
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AWB's goal is to contribute to the the development of greater self-reliance amongst disadvantaged peoples in medical care, by bringing them training and practical experience in healing through acupuncture.
To this purpose AWB sponsors missions in developing nations, carried out by volunteer acupuncture practitioners, in order to:
- share their knowledge with local medical practitioners (doctors, nurses, medical assistants) by imparting a theoretical and practical grounding in acupuncture;
- provide teaching supplies: books, photocopies, acupuncture charts, etc.;
- provide necessary acupuncture equipment: needles, moxa, sterilizers;
- maintain follow-up and evaluation in subsequent years for this training, a useful addition to overall public health and primary health care planning..
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Why Acupuncture ?
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For many reasons, acupuncture is an extremely valuable means of healing for developing countries:
- Its workings are both curative and preventive.
- Health care practitioners (doctors, nurses, medical assistants) trained in acupuncture are much more self-reliant.
- Acupuncture affords significant savings in medicines, which in these countries are often expensive and hard to come by.
- Humanitarian assistance through acupuncture is also inexpensive, since the total cost, paid by AWB, is essentially limited to the following :
- airline tickets and food and lodging expenses for the volunteer practitioners;
- teaching supply costs;
- costs for acupuncture supplies.
- This kind of humanitarian assistance, which helps the local economy, is useful in reducing dependency on Western largesse and contacts.
- The teaching of acupuncture thus contributes to the preservation of human dignity amongst aid recipients.
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The Role of Acupuncture Without Borders
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Acupuncture Without Borders conceives and carries out humanitarian missions in developing countries, with the aim of training acupuncture practitioners.
 Wat is the period for a mission of A.W.B's ?
- An exploratory mission permits us to plan AWB's course of action and secure the agreement of local authorities (health ministries, heads of clinics, etc.): the questions decided include length of stay, participants, available medical facilities, and coordination of the training program.
- AWB interventions generally consist of three or four missions or sessions of actual training, each lasting from two to three weeks.
- These sessions are spaced at intervals of six to twelve months
- One or more control or follow-up missions may be planned afterwards, at intervals of two to three years.
What kind of training does AWB provide?
- A grounding in acupuncture theory and practice is given to care-givers within a medical premises, usually a hospital or dispensary.
- Necessary training supplies (books, photocopies, acupuncture charts) as well as acupuncture supplies (needles, moxa) are provided to the interns upon their first work assignment.
Who provides the training proposed by AWB?
- During each intervention, training is provided throughout the sessions by volunteer acupuncture practitioners, all experienced and well-prepared.
What is the training program developed by AWB?
- The program, which combines theory and practice, covers from the very first session the entire basis of the discipline with regard to acupuncture energies, their pathways, and the locations of the points as well as physio-pathology, diagnostics and energy-based healing, also including techniques for manipulating needles and moxa.
- By the third week of this apprenticeship, the interns have a practical command of the therapeutic procedures for at least ten of the most common illnesses in their countries: dysentery, rheumatism, acid stomach and stomach ulcers, hypertension, etc.
- Upon completion of this apprenticeship, the interns receive a Certificate of Participation in International AWB Training.
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Translation: Paul Arenson 
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