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Dr. Yeshi Dhonden: Tibetan Medicine and Cancer

The Tibetan Refugee Health Care Project is a non-political organization funded entirely by private donations. It was created in response to the dire and growing need for public health care for the Tibetan community-in-exile, living both in resettlement camps in India, and throughout the world, and to be a support for The Tibetan Government-in-exile, His Holiness The Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Department of Health. All projects are reported to them.

Its mission is to facilitate medical treatment of the Tibetan people as well as to educate them about disease prevention. One of the goals of the project is to encourage Tibetans to learn skills that enable them to help other Tibetans. This is done by training qualified Tibetans so that they may become practitioners, skilled laborers, and/or volunteers who go back to work in their communities.

Over 135,000 Tibetans live in 53 resettlement camps primarily in India. Although major strides have been made by The Tibetan Health Department-In- Exile, only six small and simple hospitals exist. The various health problems are aggravated by economic constraints, overcrowding, poor nourishment, and lack of hygiene and sanitation in the refugee camps. These problems are further compounded by the fact that in the major resettlement camps, often, there may only be one available doctor to serve thousands of people.

Our project sends skilled complementary healthcare practitioner volunteers to provide free treatment modalities including, but not limited to:

• acupuncture
• nutritional education
• general and women's health education
• medical, dental, and chiropractic care

One urgent initiative is a malaria eradication project. Thousands of lives are in peril due to a deadly DDT-resistant malaria strain affecting Tibetan refugee camps and rural India. Other ongoing initiatives include water- purification projects and assistance with agricultural development.