Mindful Medicine Worldwide

I wrote and put a newsletter together in Mailchimp for MMW, a non-profit acupuncture organization, along with a number of social media posts. I also interviewed the acupuncturist covered in the newsletter for some of the information I needed.

Other contributors:

Photos were taken by Prue Klausener, and some editing was done by Grainne McKeown.

Newsletter:

Welcome to Nepal, Prue!

MMW is thrilled to welcome our latest volunteers:

Australian Acupuncturist Prue Klausener and her family.

As a thank you for your thoughtful contributions to Mindful Medicine Worldwide, we would like to give you a peek into what our volunteers have been up to!

Currently, our Sindhupalchok district clinic in rural Nepal is being run by Prue Klausener and members of the local community with occasional assistance from Prue's older daughter. Prue arrived in Nepal in mid-June with her husband, Sylvan, and her two daughters, Evie (8) and Norah (10).

Highlights of Prue's Volunteer Work

Prue has been treating 10-15 patients per day in our Talamarang Main Clinic
Acupuncture is being used to effectively treat patients with illnesses such as diabetes, neuropathy, gastric disorders, and paralysis
Our volunteers also serve a satellite clinic in Helambu, a 60-minute trek from Talamarang, to treat those patients who are not able to walk to our main clinic.
20 patients per day are served in the Helambu satellite clinic.
Prue and Sylvan's younger daughter Evie is enrolled in the local school and Norah is helping in the clinic.

Continue reading for: A day in the life of Prue Klausener and more.

What does a typical morning look like for you?

"I get up, and I do my morning practice. Fortunately, my kids are late sleepers, so I get to have a full meditation and yoga practice in the morning, and then I make some filtered coffee. You have beautiful coffee beans local in Nepal. I make my coffee and we have some breakfast, and then I meet my interpreter, who lives next door, and we head off to the clinic. We arrive there just before nine, open up the rooms and sweep the floors, set the diary up for the day, and at this stage, there's usually someone there by five past nine, if not before we get there, already waiting for us.

Going to the satellite clinic is a bit of a different story that requires a bus ride and then a very vertical hike up a hill to a village called Mahankal, which, if you're going to drive there, would probably be half an hour from here, so 20 minutes on the bus, and then about a 40-minute uphill hike. And then when we arrive there, that's all systems go. And the building is attached to the municipality offices there, and very simple like both clinics, but has everything you need."

What are the most common reasons patients come to the clinic?

“I think I could write a thesis on knee pain. A lot of peripheral neuropathy, a lot of issues relating to spinal compression, because of carrying the baskets, and the type of work that is required in the lifestyles here, a lot of chronic low-grade inflammation.

Gastritis is very common. Diabetes is common. You're seeing a lot of those inflammatory heat conditions, both full heat and empty heat. So yeah, always doing a lot of points first to clear the heat using herbs that are appropriate for that. What you could see in summer might be quite different to what you see in winter, of course, but being here in the monsoon, damp heat is pretty much always present. I haven't seen a lot of paralysis, just one person so far."

Want more?

Learn about Prue's two most memorable patient experiences on our blog!

Support MMW in our Mission

Donations help ensure our clinic stays stocked with the medical supplies necessary to treat patients, and volunteering with us is always a great help. The more health practitioners we have, the more patients can be treated across multiple clinics in a day.

Learn more about Mindful Medicine Worldwide's mission to bring sustainable integrative healthcare to developing regions. Check out the 2011 interview with Grainne McKeown about MMW on WBEZ!

For more information, visit the MMW website or our social media accounts linked below.

Social posts: